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

I NTRODUCTION Six hundred Australian and international delegates gathered a t t he Brisbane Convention & Exh ibition Centre from 27-29 September 1 996 for the Conference 'Present Encounters' held in conj unction with the Second Asia-Pacific Trienn ial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery. Dr Nicholas Jose , in 'Over the Borders', The Australian's Review of Books, November 1 996 , described this event as 'the biggest art conference ever held in Australia'. The opening address was g iven by Queensland Art Gallery Director, Mr Doug Hall. Nearly forty speakers participated in the Conference, which was co-presented by the Queensland Art Gallery and the Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations at Griffith University. The Convenors of the Conference, Dr Russell Trood , Director, Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, Dr Caroline Turner, Deputy Director, Queensland Art Gallery and Rhana Devenport, Senior Project Officer, Second Asia­ Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery worked with a committee of advisors from both i nstitutions, including Professor Sandra Buckley, Department of Asian I nternational Studies, Griffith University, Associate Professor Pat Hoffie, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and staff of the Queensland Art Gallery. Griffith University co­ sponsored the Conference, in recognition of the University's 25th Anniversary, in conj unction with The Dictionary of Art: Macmil lan Publishers Australia Pty Ltd Our g rateful thanks go to the sponsors for their support of this outstanding international event. This publication includes all the papers presented except those of Mr David Elliott, Mr Vivan Sundaram and Mr Emmanuel Kasarherou. At the request of these authors their papers could not be included because of lack of supporting visual material or unavailability of text. Also omitted have been d iscussion and questions from the audience and the remarks by the Session Chairs, except for those by Mr David Williams and Ms Anne Kirker which have been included , and. It proved impossible to include these very stimu lating and interesting contributions due to technical reasons. The papers that follow present, however, strong and extremely chal lenging viewpoints and give a clear ind ication of why this Conference has been considered so sign ificant. Speakers at the Conference called for a new understanding of the historical context of contemporary art, including modernism in Asia, a new language for art criticism in the reg ion , a reconsideration of Western notions of time, and a consideration of new strategies for deconstruction . Speakers talked of the possibility of new 'centres' emerging. They questioned the perspectives of the Euro-American art world and i ndicated the need for a more sophisticated understand ing of difference and disj unction . The roles of t he artist and t he i nstitution in contemporary society were scrutinised and issues of 'contemporary' and 'traditional' were re-examined by Pacific speakers in particular. Many artists spoke movingly of the personal experiences which inform their art. I n the complex field of contemporary Asia-Pacific art the need to 'move the debate forward' is an ever present consideration . A number of conferences in recent years have attempted this. In Australia they include Dr John Clark's important conference 'Modernism and Post-Modernism in Asian Art' held at the Australian National Un iversity in 1 991 . 1 The First Asia-Pacifi c Triennial Conference, 'Identity, Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of the Asia-Pacific Region' was also a milestone and, although the papers were not published , transcripts are available at the Queensland Art Gallery. As wel l , the book accompanying the exhibition (Caroline Turner (ed .) , Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1 993) , gives an excellent i ntroduction to the views presented at the Conference. In the United Kingdom, David Elliott at the Museum of Modem Art Oxford , and Graeme Mu rray at the Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh organised conferences in association with recent contemporary Asian art exhibitions. A particularly significant 9