![\"Watercolour](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5687c0f90aad900d07e8a1a8410c19f04a460a58.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIt screened for several days, he says. \u201cBut right after I claimed [authorship of] the work and explained the intention behind it, overnight [it was] taken down.\u201d<\/p>\n
One wall in the main space features only a small painting, alongside a watch in a boxy frame. The painting depicts a student taking part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. It\u2019s based on a photograph, and in it the boy stretches his arm towards the left.<\/p>\n
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Watercolour works by Badiucao.Credit: Jason South<\/p>\n
It appears he is pointing to the watch, which is in its own frame. At first glance, it looks unremarkable, but, the artist explains, it is one of the timepieces that were gifted to soldiers who played a part in the massacre<\/a>, \u201cto justify what they were doing, and also buy their loyalty\u201d. Printed at the six o\u2019clock position is the head of a soldier wearing a helmet.<\/p>\n The watches are hard to come by these days, and while many of the works on display are for sale, the watch is not. Badiucao points to its value as a historical object, something that highlights an atrocity that \u201cthe Chinese government tried to erase\u201d. \u201cI\u2019d love to donate it to a museum or institution under the condition that it will be displayed for the public,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The final room is taken up by a series of watercolour paintings, some drawn from his work as a political cartoonist. It\u2019s easy, he says, to dismiss political cartoons as ephemeral, tied to specific moments in the news cycle. \u201cBut when we\u2019re talking about the situation in an authoritarian regime like China, because there\u2019s a lack of freedom of speech, because there\u2019s a lack of public memory for those very important social affairs and incidents of human rights abuses, this makes it very important to have some form of visual reference. \u201d<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n Taken as a whole, Badiucao\u2019s work tackles the dimming of freedom in Hong Kong, the Tiananmen Square massacre, enforced labour camps for the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, the erasure of culture in Tibet, how the LGBTQ community is repressed in China and, he says, \u201csubjects like how China is supporting Russia\u2019s invasion in Ukraine, how China is posing a deadly threat to Taiwan\u2019s democracy [and] basically rehearsing war constantly\u201d.<\/p>\n He also has work that focuses on the detention of journalist Cheng Lei<\/a>, and is critical of how the Australian government\u2019s attempt to navigate our relationship with China is \u201cputting economic benefits ahead of other important values, and even to some extent risks sacrificing our national security\u201d.<\/p>\n But the exhibition is not solely focused on China. \u201cAs a Chinese-Australian dissident artist, it seems I will always be categorised as concerned or caring about one aspect of the world,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the reality is I believe human rights are a universal value.\u201d<\/p>\n To illustrate the point, he motions to a pair of works on the far wall. One depicts handcuffs made of cable ties, the other a bag of flour riddled with bulletholes. Their inclusion is \u201caddressing the situation in Gaza, highlighting the crisis of starvation, but also pointing out the brutality of Hamas during the October 7 attack\u201d.<\/p>\n At the core of Disagree Where We Must is a pushback against silence, and a call to bring issues into the open.<\/p>\n \u201cThere must be some way that universal compassion can be applied and formed towards innocent civilians who suffer from these conflicts,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that we do not avoid discussion on such issues, [that] we do not avoid disagreement on certain issues, but continue to have communication. And it\u2019s very important to stop demonising each other in a way that\u2019s stopping such an exchange from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Disagree Where We Must<\/a> is at Goldstone Gallery in Collingwood until August 28. <\/p>\n