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

This tongue-in-cheek prayer was i nvented from within a double kind of excl usion ; from an experience of displacement and d isj uncture between an unknown future and an u ncertain past. This example of popu lar culture is evidence of the kind of transcu ltural d ialogue that searches for identity between tradition and change; which uses i rreverence, irony and a self­ mocking humour to forge a language from the spaces of exi le. These a re forms which claim their spaces from the 'hyphenated territories' that have no finite descri ptions, like so many of those that fal l within the broad category of the Asia-Pacific region. Such forms of popular culture within this Asia-Pacific region also make a plea for the time and space in the present to recogn ise those identities that no longer can enj oy the luxury of being fixed . 1 29