1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

12 museum. I can only make a plea for i t s inclusion, because a de libe ra te and obviously subve r s ive exp lora tion of bad t a s t e will provide a much more app rop ria te and amusing con tex t for und e r s tand ing what is be ing done with the good t a s t e in the recep tion cu ltu re , it will ac tua lly make the quiet ach ievemen ts of many modern a r t i s t s in our region more prominent. f. New Histories If modern a r t in Asia is to mean any th ing between the cu ltu res of the region it must be in providing the modernity in a r t which i t s cu ltu re s have chosen, and shown to each o ther. It is by implication c o n te s ta to ry towards Euramerica. I hope cu ra to rs of fu tu r e Triennales will have more knowledge and courage to make collagist jux tapo s ition s which c rea te in the works exh ib ited the new h is to r ie s of modern a rt. Why not pu t Ravi Varma aga in s t Hyakutake Kaneyuki? Why not pu t Affandi aga ins t Umehara Ryusaburo? But beyond r e c o n s t i t u t in g our missing pa s t, should we not also look a t those p re sen t bricoleurs in the gaps within th e ir cu ltu re s , who use modernist techn ique or conception to re la tiv iz e t h e i r own embedded p a s t s ? Should we not in fac t now s t a r t try ing to in teg r a te our view of modern Asian a r t v ia complex common no tions of prac tice , in s te ad of simplistic c u l tu r e - sp e c i f i c d iscrimina tions which s ep a r a te o t h e r - c u l t u r a l p rac tice ? I th ink here we must also have th e c re a tiv e cen tredene ss not merely within cu ltu re s bu t also to be bricoleurs in the gaps between cu ltu res . Perhaps here the re is something Au s tra lian experience can con tribu te [humbly]. g. Abandon the Nation What is h is tory , what is the life t h a t has meaning from which a rt bodies fo r th ? Or what is the life aga ins t whose absence of meaning a rt cries ou t? A v a r ie ty of age -o ld and modern replies to these basic questions are possible, but I th ink the very in s t i tu t io n of an in t e rn a tion a l art