Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

EXHIBITION PHILOSOPHY Extract from Foreword to Catalogue by Doug Hall The 'Asia-Pacific Triennial’ is a landmark exhibition and the first of its kind of this scale in the world to focus on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand. In undertaking the Asia-Pacific Triennial the Queensland Art Gallery recognised the need for an ongoing series of exhibitions and forums which would initiate dialogue on the art of this important geo-political region. Australia’s cultural engagement with Asia has, more often than not, been conceived as art history, both through exhibitions and the development of collections. The visual arts of Asia have been presented to Australians as a variety of cultures with a past rich in tradition.... The dynamics of change, identities, and even twentieth-century cultural dislocation as revealed through contemporary art have only recently attracted attention and indeed are highlighted by the 'Asia-Pacific Triennial’. The Queensland Art Gallery has a strong commitment to building collections and presenting exhibitions of the art of the twentieth century. In thinking about ways in which the Gallery could make a contribution in the exhibition and collection area to the art of our region, the ‘Asia-Pacific Triennial’ was conceived. In many ways, the Gallery saw the development of the Triennial as a project waiting to be done. It broke the pattern of art museums’ preoccupation with the past; defined a way, in both intellectual and organisational terms, in which Australia might construct a relevant forum for the presentation of Asian and Pacific contemporary art; and reaffirmed the Gallery’s commitment to international programs of current international and domestic relevance. There are excellent collections of historical Asian art within Australia, a growing awareness in Australia of the contemporary art and art practice of the region, and a number of important initiatives in the cultural area. Among these are the establishment of Asialink and the Australia Council’s new policy of directing much of its international funding towards Asia. Australia's engagement with Asia over the last twenty years has increased dramatically but there has been no major exhibition focusing on the art of Asia and the Pacific. Although we might recall that the first Sydney Biennale in November 1973 did include artists from East Asia and that it was the intention that Asia be a strong emphasis at the Biennale despite the European emphasis which later emerged, Australia’s interest in contemporary regional art is new but nevertheless genuine and growing. The important Artists Regional Exchange (ARX) project has done much to establish contacts between younger artists in South-East Asia and those in Australia. The last ten years have seen the beginning of the development of large-scale exhibitions including the Queensland Art Gallery’s first museum-based exhibition of contemporary Australian art to Japan in 1987, and the return exhibition of contemporary Japanese art in 1989. Further Asian exhibitions are underway. The art of the Pacific is also an area of developing interest and one which relates to the extraordinary appreciation, which has emerged in the last two decades, of contemporary Aboriginal art, and to the changes in attitude and approach in Australian art practice generally in the last twenty years. A vital component of the Triennial will be the associated publications and forums: a major book, Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific has been published by University of Queensland Press; this catalogue has been compiled; and an