The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 24 Edith Amituanai Aotearoa New Zealand b.1980 Don blasting the ocean (From ‘L’a’u Pele Moana (My darling Moana)’ series) 2021 Archival pigment print on Giclée paper, ed. 1/5 / 90 x 111cm / Commissioned for APT10. Purchased 2021 with funds from the Jennifer Taylor Bequest through the Queensland Art Gallery l Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Introduction Everyday lived spaces have become the source of narratives about social conditions and the imagination, with experiences of domesticity assuming new meanings. APT10 constructs and gathers stories from these spaces, as architectures and homes instilled with memories and histories become subjects and formal devices, and the politics that preside over private and shared spaces are navigated by artists across different contexts. The varied materials, rituals and textures of the art-making of different locales is also palpable in this exhibition that seeks to engage with diverse contexts of cultural sharing and production. Representing spaces of cultural importance brings to light cultural protocols and responsibilities. Working with the Uramat in Papua New Guinea, custodianship and the authority to view ceremonial objects outside their customary context has been called into question, while the community has been engaged to harness new ways for audiences to experience the objects. Conversely, artists such as Koji Ryui and Brian Fuata explore relationships within the spaces of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, reinterpreting and experimenting with the Gallery’s architecture, history, materiality and the presence of what cannot be seen. Invitations to step into cultural spaces are revealed and rationalised through other artworks in APT10, where a Tongan fale (house made of local materials) by Seleka International Art Society Initiative; the Balinese ritualised space of I Made Djirna’s installation; a deity-inhabited shrine by Vipoo Srivilasa; and the rainbow spectrum representing safe spaces for LGBTQI+ communities in artist Shannon Novak’s installation all carry coded cultural connotations of the communities they emerge from or engage with. The artists and collaborators in APT10 draw on deep histories, current urgencies and cultural encounters, both amicable and otherwise, that have shaped art and life across the Asia Pacific and which take on heightened relevance as we try to imagine a new future together. Endnotes 1 Maya Wilson-Sanchez, ‘Time and Water: Shannon Te Ao’s Ka Mua Ka Muri in Canada’, Contemporary HUM , 3 September 2020, <https:// contemporaryhum.com/writing/time-and-water/ >, viewed July 2021. 2 Subash Thebe Limbu, ‘Adivasi Futurism’ (unpublished essay), 2020. 3 Fangas Nayaw, artist statement supplied to the authors, May 2020. 4 Vicente Diaz, discussion with Air Canoe curatorial team, 25 November 2020. 5 Epeli Hau’ofa referenced in Greg Dvorak, Coral and Concrete: Remembering Kwajalein Atoll Between Japan, America, and the Marshall Islands , University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2018, p.28. 6 Dvorak, p.37.