The Cross Art Projects foregrounds contemporary work and curatorial projects that reflect the multiple relationships between art, life and the public sphere, and explores the boundaries of this context. We are attentive to the local without sacrificing the scope of Indigenous and international views. Cross Art enhances its projects with conversations, walks and events.
Acknowledgement
We are on Gadigal Land where Sovereignty has never been ceded. Australia always was and always will be, Aboriginal land. We work towards an inclusive culture and society with equal rights for all.
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Gadigal Country
8 Llankelly Place,
Kings Cross, Sydney 2011
Australia
Opening Hours
11am to 5pm Thursday to Saturday
(Saturday close at 4pm)
Closed public holidays.
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WEST PAPUA IS NOT AN EMPTY LAND
Papua bukan tanah kosong
Artists: Alyakha Kolektif (Markus Rumbino with Brian Suebu, Syors Deda and Marzamel Kristian Guijangge), Fitri DK, Dicky Takndare, Taring Padi, Muhammad ‘Ucup’ Yusuf, + screening of documentary: Pesta Babi/Pig Feast: Colonialism in our time
Opening screening and conversations: 10 October at 2 pm
With Sophie Chao, anthropologist who has studied the often fraught relationship between Papuans and plantation firms
Exhibition runs 10 October to 7 November 2026
The Cross Art Projects
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West Papua is not an empty land relays conversations, critique, and shared cultural knowledge amongst leading artists and voices from Indonesia’s post-colonial and environmental movements. Artists from three activist groups—Taring Padi formed in 1998, Udeido in 2018, and Alyakha Kolektif formed a year later—use painting, woodblock, film and sound art with acuity and spirit, to amplify awareness of accelerating land theft in West Papua to regional audiences. The exhibition centrepiece is the documentary film Pesta Babi: Colonialism in Our Time (2026) directed by journalist Dandhy Laksono and anthropologist Cypri Dale. It focusses on the escalation in land clearing concessions in Papua under president Prabowo Subianto and his predecessor Joko Widodo. Papua hosts the world’s third-largest rainforest and wetlands and is a global biodiversity shield. It is now falling prey to deforestation in Indonesia’s bid to become the world’s leading producer of palm oil.