War Paint

The tattooed, dreadlock-sporting members of radical agitprop collective Taring Padi despise materialism, and spend their days producing banners and posters urging social reform in their native Indonesia. It would therefore be a delicious irony if their work became collectable — clucked over in galleries by affluent, Shiraz-sipping dilettantes. But stranger things have happened in the world of art, and the group — with around 10 artists at its core — now finds itself enjoying a modicum of celebrity.

Taring Padi's artists have been asked to hold an exhibition at the National Gallery in Jakarta...