Biodata

Nadiah Bamadhaj was born in Petaling Jaya, West Malaysia in 1968. Trained as a sculptor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, she now produces drawings, video, and digital images. She has worked in non-government organizations on HIV/AIDS prevention, human rights advocacy, and lectured in art in Kuala Lumpur. She is author of Aksi Write (1997), a work of non-fiction on Indonesia and Timor Leste, co-written with her late brother. In 2000 she began full-time art-practice, and was awarded the Nippon Foundation's Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship in 2002, electing to spend her fellowship period in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she produced an art-based research project on the social aftermath of Indonesia’s 1965 coup attempt. Her recent artwork looks at architecture as historical and nationalist documents, which is the topic of her PhD research that began at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia in 2006.


Curriculum Vitae

i. Education
2010 - 2006  

Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD), Faculty of Built Environment, Art, and Design, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.

1992 - 1989

   Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

ii. Awards
2009 - 2006  

Australia Postgraduate Award and APA Top Up Award, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.

2004

  

Asian Public Intellectual Follow-Up Grant, funded by the Nippon Foundation.
2003 - 2002  

Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship, funded by the Nippon Foundation, administered by the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
2001  

Juror’s Choice, Philip Morris Sdn. Bhd. Malaysia Art Awards 2001, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
2001 - 2000  

Artist-in-Residence. Rimbun Dahan Artist Residency Program, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia.
1991  

Jane Rounick Memorial Award for Sculpture, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

iii. Art Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions
2004  

enamlima sekarang (sixtyfive now), Galeri Lontar, Komunitas Utan Kayu, Jakarta, Indonesia.

2003

  

enamlima sekarang (sixtyfive now), Benteng Vredeburg Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

2001  

1965 – Rebuilding Its Monuments, GALERI PETRONAS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1996  

Backflow, Site specific installation as part of AIDS Memorial Day, Pink Triangle, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1995  

Hanging with the Boys, Sculpture installation as part of Pinkfest 1995, World AIDS Day, Kapitan’s Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Two Person Exhibitions
2006  

Building Conversations: Nadiah Bamadhaj and Michael Lee, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, September, 2006.

2005

  

147 Tahun Merdeka (147 Years of Independence), in collaboration with Tian Chua, Reka Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2004  

Batu Bata Tanah Air (Building Blocks of Homeland), in collaboration with Tian Chua, Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Group Exhibitions
2008  

The Scale of Black, Contemporary Drawings from Southeast Asia, HT Contemporary Space, Singapore.

2007

  

Borobudor Auction, Southeast Asian Contemporary, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore.
   

Out of the Mould: The Age of Reason, 10 Malaysian Women Artists, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
   

Photofolio, Jogja Gallery, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
   

Fetish: Object Art Project #1, Biasa Artspace, Denpasar, Indonesia.
   

Selamat Datang ke (Welcome to) Malaysia: An exhibition of contemporary art from Malaysia, Gallery 4A, Sydney, Australia.
    Processing the City: Art on Architecture, Central Market Annex Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Never Mind, Video Art Exhibition, ViaVia Café, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
2006   Fast Futures: Asian Video Art, The Asia Society India Centre (ASIC), Little Theatre Auditorium, NCPA, Mumbai, India.
    The War Must Go On, Clockshop Billboard Series, www.clockshop.org, corner of Fairfax and Wilshire, Los Angeles, USA.
    TV-TV, Week 34, Video Art Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark.
    Melbourne Art Fair, World Heritage Listed Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia.
    Signed and Dated, Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Holding Up Half the Sky by Women Artists, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Project in Five Acts, Act 3: Faroe Art Museum, Tórshavn, The Faroe Islands.
    Biennale Jakarta 2006, Beyond The Limits and its Challenges, Galeri Lontar, Komunitas Utan Kayu, Indonesia.
    Fast Futures: Asian Video Art, Asian Contemporary Art Week, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, USA.
    Home Productions, Video Art Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.
2005   Biennial Yogya VIII 05, Consciousness of the Here and Now, Site–specific installation at the Kandhang Menjangan Heritage Site, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
    Presentation, Home Works III: A Forum on Cultural Practices, Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon.
    ART Singapore 2005, The contemporary Asian Art Fair, Suntec, Singapore.
    CP Biennale, Urban Culture, Museum of the Indonesian National Bank, Jakarta, Indonesia.
    you are here, Valentine Willie Fine Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Media in "f", In Affiliation with Women's World 2005: The 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Ewha Art Center, Ewha Woman’s' University Campus, Seoul, South Korea.
2004   Presentation and Workshop. Flying Circus Project: 04, Seeing with Foreign Eyes, Theatreworks, Fort Canning Park, Singapore, 3–18 December 2004.
    Living Art: Regional Artists Respond to HIV/AIDS, Queen’s Gallery, XV International AIDS Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.
    Paradise Found/ Paradise Lost, WWF Art For Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia.
    Seriously Beautiful, Reka Art Studio, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Gedebook, Group Fundraising Exhibition, Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
    ART Singapore 2004, The contemporary Asian art fair, Suntec, Singapore.
2002   Asean Art Awards, Bali International Convention Center, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
    Touch, WWF Art For Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia.
    Gwangju Biennale 2002, Pause, Exhibition Hall 1, Gwangju, South Korea.
2001   Philip Morris Art Awards, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Exhibit X , Taksu Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    Flashpoint, WWF Art For Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia.
    Exhibit A, Valentine Willie Fine Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2000   Arang, Taksu Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1998   APA? SIAPA? KENAPA?, Artis Pro Activ Arts Fest, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1994   Temples of Lust, Art and Culture on Prostitution, Berlin, Germany.
1993   Body Politics, Nine New Zealand Sculptors, Christchurch Artists Collective, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1992   Vogue/Vague, Young Contemporary Sculptors, Canterbury Society for the Arts, Christchurch, New Zealand.

iv. Written Publications
2003  

Article. “1965: Indonesian Historical Memory — The Enforcement of Forget”, Second Asian Public Intellectuals Workshop, Economic Prospects, Cultural Encounters, and Political Decisions: Scenes in a Moving Asia (East and Southeast), Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, 8-12 December 2003.

 

   Article. “30th September 2003”, Latitudes Magazine - views from 6 degrees above and 11 degrees below the equator, Volume 32, Bali, Indonesia 2003.
2001   Article. “The Hot Potato: Sexuality Advocacy Rights in Malaysia”, Published in In God’s Image, Journal of Asian Women’s Resource Center for Culture and Theology, Vol. 20, No.2, June 2001, and in www.saksi.com, Issue 3, 1999.
1999   Interview with Xanana Gusmao in Cipinang Prison, Jakarta 1998, Published in www.saksi.com, Issue 3, 1999.
1997   Book of Non Fiction. Aksi Write, Rhino Press and Word Wizards, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1997.