Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

The purpose is to encourage long-term dialogue, to give artists who are the practitioners a chance to experience a culture for more than a quick visit. The idea a rose from the frustrations we have experienced when exh ibitions have been to other countries and not made a lasting impression and when there has been little interface between artists here and 'there'. 'Fire and Life' offers someth ing that is about intimacy, detail, stories. It is about listening to voices. In the future I wou ld like to see an exhibition that cou ld i ncl ude the work of say fou r artists from fou r different countries because their work has something in common . Their work could be juxtaposed in order to tease out their immed iate and specific concerns. With in this exh ibition alone there are many small groups that could be formed into small focused exhibitions e.g. Emiko Kasahara's marble urinal/breasts, Nalin i Malani's d rawings of mutant bod ies, Fiona Hall's Coca Cola coat for her father, and Kim Joon's Tattoo Guys make a stimulating group of works about the body as a site . The last few days have been such an accumulation of i mage and text. I see many cu rators in the audience. When we leave here, we can hopefu lly unravel some of the knots and push forward with some other innovative exh ibition and collecting strategies. Let's i nclude the artists of this region in our exhibitions of the future. 1 . Mary Nooter Roberts in Chris MOiier, Susan Vogel and Mary Nooter Roberts, Exhibition-ism: Museums and African Art, The Museum for African Art, New York, 1 994, p.34 . 2. Ivan Karp in Chris MO i ier et a l . , p.41 . 3. Coco Fusco, 'Passionate Irreverence: The Cu ltural Politics of Identity', in the Whitney Biennial, 1 995. 1 05