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

contradictions of hybrid developments are man ifest in this celebration where aspects of local history and mythology coll ide with the tenets of Cathol icism, commercialism and high revelry . Tagalog cinema i s a burgeoning industry in The Philippines. The streets of a l l major and provincial cities are festooned with the hand-painted banners advertising local stars in l u rid colour. In The Philippines the cheapness of labour means that hand-produced art and crafts are stil l more affordable than technologically produced items. Although the majority of Tagalog films are critically rejected as i ll-conceived , poorly made pap, the same sense of Filipino humour and unorthodox piety that infects the fiestas also characterises the plots of these 'potboi lers' . I n a scene from a film called Juan Tamad Goes To Congress, Filipino director Manuel Conde re-presents the typical Un ited States attitude to Filipinos during the 1 950s. The mythological character J uan Tamad epitomised the representation of the Filipino as a lazy, shiftless wastrel ; he is most frequently depicted as lyi ng on his back under a ripeni ng papaya - too lazy even to pluck the fruit, he is content simply to wait unti l it drops into his mouth . In this film-sti l l , Juan Tamad is shown on his way to the big city in his country cart drawn by a lumbering carabao. Undeterred by the obvious unsuitabi lity of h is vehicle, he draws up to an American gas-station in a mock attempt t o refuel his cargo. This image i s one example o f the way popular cu ltural representations simultaneously appropriate and parody the way i n whi ch minority cu ltures are d imi n ished by dominant or imperialist misrepresentations. I n both these examples, willful m istranslations are used as double-edged , self-aware ironic representations of identity, where the misunderstandings and inadequacies of dominant cultures a re simultaneously thrown i nto sharp focus at the same time as a critically distanced self-identity is foregrou nded . These two examples a re specific to The Philippines, and there is nothing to be gained through conflating such examples to represent generalised popular cultural responses withi n the Asia-Pacific region . However, the point at which popular culture with in many of the diverse communities withi n the Asia-Pacific region can be said to overlap is situated at those junctures where the demands of change are med iated by the demands of tradition , and vice versa, the transcultu ra l dialogue that traverses and mediates those often oppositional influences spawns the hybrid forms of popular culture. I n this sense, popu lar cu ltural forms in this reg ion can be described as emerging from the liminal zones somewhere between the poles of tradition AND of change - the areas that provided the dialecti cal basis for the previous Asia-Pacific Triennial. This zone provides the territory with in which we can assess the work and the discussions at this Triennial . The title 'Present Encounters' seems simple and clear enough, but the simplicity is deceptive; how can we beg in to describe this 'imprecise geography', where the clear boundaries of nation­ states and traditional pasts a re dissembling and reaggragating into new formations? And who will dare to attempt to label this 'age without a name'? Even the certainties of the past have crumbled as we bri ng revisionist histories to bear on old assumptions and categories. Throughout the conference labels like 'post-modern', 'post-colonial' and 'post-Other' h ave abounded ; there can be l ittle doubt that this lapse into definition th rough modifications of pre­ existing categories signals a certai n loss in confidence. A sense of displaced identity is one of the most formative experiences of our century. There is no-one i n this room whose cultural identity is not undergoing profound changes at this point of history . Settler colonies like non-I ndigenous Australians a re particularly vulnerable to the high tide of contextless theoretical rhetoric that washes over the contemporary discussions about issues of identity, for they do not have a bedrock of identification with place to d raw from , and the sense of alienation in a land which does not belong to them g rows more profound with increased u nderstanding about the depth and complexity of Aboriginal identification with the land i n this country. This is further compounded by Australia's search for a place in the Asia-Pacifi c reg ion - it's obvious that a valid argument for i nclusion won't be found through any arguments for common cu ltural orig ins. Nor will any arguments on the basis of geographical correctness be able to afford a sol ution. Rather, that identity must be searched for by sifting through the sense of 'presentness' that the title of this Trien ni a l 1 26