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

Soyeon AHN Soyeon Ahn was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1 96 1 . She is curator of the Ho-Am Art Museum . Soyeon Ahn holds a BA in French Literature and an MA in History of Art from Ewha Women's University, Seou l . Among recent international exh ibitions she has curated are 'Tradition and Innovation: Italian Art since 1 945' (1 996) , 'The Tiger's Tai l : 1 5 Korean Contemporary Artists for Venice' (1 995) and 'Pistoletto Through the Mirror' (1 994) . She was a membe r of the curatorial team for South Korea and a catalogue writer for the Second Asia­ Pacific Triennial (APT) . Deepak ANANTH Deepak Ananth lectures in the History of Modern and Contemporary Art at Ecole des Beaux­ Arts, Caen , France. He read History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, and has publ ished essays on contemporary I ndian , African and European artists, as well as historical figures such as Matisse and Vuillard. An essay on 'Matisse and the Orient' is forthcoming in an anthology entitled The Rhetoric of the Frame to be published by Cambridge University Press. He has co-curated international exhibitions, includ i ng 'Thresholds', featuring twelve contemporary artists from France (Del h i , 1 995) . Deepak Ananth contributed essays on the Indian artists Vivan Sundaram and Mrinalini Mukherjee to the Second APT catalogue. Chumpon APISUK Chumpon Apisuk is a practising Thai instal lation and performance artist, art dealer and consu ltant. He is co-founder and member of the art collective Concrete House, an alternative art space committed to art and activism , and particularly the issue of AIDS in Thailand . Michael BRAND Dr Michael Brand will take up the position of Assistant Di rector and Manager, Curatorial & Collection Development at the Queensland Art Gallery i n November, 1 996. After receiving his PhD i n Art History from Harvard University in 1 987 Dr Brand was Co-Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Mughal Garden Research Project in Pakistan before being appointed as the first Head of the new Department of Asian Art at the National Gallery of Austra lia in 1 988. Among his projects at the National Gallery were the major international exhi bitions The Age of Angkor: Treasures from the National Museum of Cambodia' (1 992) and The Vision of Kings: Art and Experience in India' (1 995) . Sandra BUCKLEY Professor Sandra Buckley is Chair, Japan Studies at Griffith University, Brisbane. She holds a BA (Hons) from Queensland University, an MA and PhD (Yale) . Her areas of special interest are Japanese literature and theatre , modern and pre-modem; Japanese women's history and feminism in East Asia; women's writing and reception of texts; comparative study of popu lar cultural production (modem and pre-modern) ; gender and space in Asia; Japanese fil m , video and new electronic computer arts; Japanese impact on g lobal communication technology and the cultural i nfluence of Japan i n the so-called 'first' and 'third' worlds. Al ison CARROLL Al ison Carroll studied art h istory in Melbourne and Venice, taught at the University of Melbourne, then managed the works on paper col lections at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. She has been the curator of several exhibitions and written many publications. Alison Carroll initiated the Asialink arts prog ram in 1 991 and since then it has expanded to cover exchanges between Australia and Asian countries of not only visual arts and crafts but also of performing arts, arts admin istrators and literature. She was a member of the National Advisory Committee for the First and the Second APTs, was curatorial co­ ord inator for South Korea, a member of the curatorial team for Taipei and a catalogue writer for the Second APT. 1 45