Jogja Disability Arts (JDA) has had a long relationship with Community Murals CIC, beginning in 2021 with a collaboration in response to the pandemic.
We worked online with students from Ty Gwyn Special School and sixteen year old Ayla Halewood, who is the subject of the printed metal mural in Cardiff (left).
The same mural elements were printed in Indonesia and installed outside the RJ Katamsi gallery in Jogjakarta, Java (above ).
In 2022, Andrew collaborated with Ruben Lorca, a Spanish disabled artist living in Cardiff and online with disabled artists recruited through JDA to design a paper mural that was pasted up on hoardings (see Unity video above)
Then, early in 2023, JDA designed a mural to be painted by Community Murals in Cardiff, while we designed one for Indonesia.
Both designs were abstract, based on traditional textiles; Javanese batik and Welsh blankets. The 'Welsh' design included textiles from Somalia, Bangladesh and China, to represent some of the many cultures in Wales.
Both carried the message 'Humanising Humankind Makes Peace For All' in English and Javanese.
In September 2023, Andy Bolton worked online with disabled Indonesian artists to make a design for a mural that was painted by JDA at the entrance to the RJ Katamsi Gallery in Jogjakarta for the second International Disability Arts Biennale (left).
A video by Andy Bolton featured in the Biennale exhibition along with work from other disabled Welsh artists - Cheryl Beer, Booker Skelding, Emma Frayne.
Then in November, Butong Idar and Nano Warsono travelled from Java to Cardiff to work alongside us, creating two murals in Cardiff, at Pedal Power Cardiff Bay and one in Bristol at Easton Community Centre (below).
We look forward to continuing this exciting and productive international relationship.
Butong Idar’s mural tells a personal story.
His wife is non-disabled and much taller than him and the couple get disparaging looks and comments when they are seen together in public. The dog cocking its leg represents this.
The flower headed woman also represents Blodeuwedd, a woman made of flowers in the Mabinogion, the ancient Welsh history/mythology.
Nano Warsono’s mural is a fantasy version of his memory of a bike ride we all went on using adapted bikes from Cardiff Pedal Power.
Jasmine (Indonesia), daffodils (Wales) and roses (England) represent the exchange of cultures and the people on the bike are, from the front; Butong, Andy Bolton, Gus Dur – a former president of Indonesia who was partially sighted and who introduced moderate Islamic democracy and rights and representation for racial and religious minorities, Nano.
The Bristol Community Mural was designed collaboratively. The ideas for the design came out of the same online workshops as Andrew Bolton's Jogja mural, specifically the colours, the flowers - jasmine (Indonesia), daffodils (Wales) and roses (England) - and the idea of disabled ‘heroes’.
Nano drew the image of Gus Dur in a very traditional Indonesian ‘Wayang’ drawing style and Andy adapted the image of Ayla – the disabled Welsh teenager who has now appeared in all four of Community Murals CIC's collaborations with JDA – so that she would be dressed in similar clothes.