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

Some works address the public space, intersecting issues of the individual experience with i ntense social concern . From the spirit to the social . I n Pies Name/, literally 'our place', Michael and Anna Mel re-invest in their living trad itions. In our context the pies name/ or village centre in actual physical presence represents a temporary and temporal location. . . . All that remains of the occasion and performances are the friendsh ips, relationships, recollections and memories of personal experience . . . 7 Power, hegemonic greed , economic structu res, tiger economies, imperialism, colonial pasts becoming the present, exploitation , consumerism, commodification , industrial dystopia , potential violence, humour, satire, kitsch and popular culture, 'kawai', the eroticism of popular materials, the seduction of image, decay and the dysfunctional , artists as d issidents, m igrations, voyagi ng , transcending national ideologies, the pilgrim, the traveller, temporal fugitives, oceans and water and the specifics of location are referenced . I n the words of partici pating artist Takashi Mu rakami, 'I like thi ngs that are not u niversal'. Like Fiona Hall's cloak, woven from discarded aluminium coke cans and worn by her naked father, the stories told here reveal many truths: the works grow and infiltrate of their own accord . As the Japanese curator Furnia Nan j o says: The only possibility open to us is to listen seriously to the narratives being conveyed th rough various cultural contexts and to unravel the stories in this i nfinite book, each one of the many stories making up a cosmos of islands which opens our eyes to new beauty. 8 Or, i n the words of Judy Millar, one of the artists working within the Aotearoa/ New Zealand waka collective, To see with new eyes To borrow the eyes of others 9 1 . Ong Keng Sen, ' l ntercultural Exchange and Dialogue in the Arts', paper given at 'AsiaEdge/Tokyo' 1 996 Symposium, February 1 1 1 996. 2. Aotearoa/New Zealand waka collective, unpublished artist's statement for the Second Asia-Pacific Trien nial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1 996. 3. Nalini Malani, Artist's Talk, Queensland Art Gallery, 22 September 1 996. 4. James Clifford , quoting Baudrillard in 'On Collecti ng Art and Culture' in Russell Ferg uson, Martha Gever, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Cornel West, (eds), Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and Massachusetts I nstitute of Technology, Massach usetts, 1 990, p . 1 44. 5. Geeta Kapur, 'Ni Iima Sheikh' in Caroline Turner & Rhana Devenport (eds), Second Asia Pacific- Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1 996, p. 1 00. 6. Patrick D. Flores, ' Francesca Enriquez ( Keka)', I bid, p.86. 7. M ichael & An na Mel in 'Artist's Statements', I bid. 8. Furnia Nanjo, 'A Book That I s Never Finished', Transculture, The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 1 995, p. 1 5 . 9. J udy Millar, unpu blished Artists' Statement for the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1 996. 39