11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Key moments in Katsuko Ishigaki’s life have coincided with milestones in the political and cultural history of her home of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The artist was born on Ishigaki, the administrative and commercial centre of the Yaeyama islands in Okinawa’s far south-west, and moved as a child to the prefectural capital of Naha on the archipelago’s mainland in 1972, the same year the territory was returned to Japanese sovereignty after 27 years of US occupation. In 1991, Ishigaki was one of the first students to graduate from the newly constituted Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. With her vividly coloured, critically inflected land and cityscape paintings, Ishigaki is part of a wave of Ryukyuan artists finding an audience within Japan’s contemporary art system. Ishigaki first came to prominence for her fantastic, dreamlike ‘yellow people’ works, depicting simple, magical figures in oil paintings and cork sculptures. After relocating her studio to Okinawa City, an hour north of her home in Naha, she became aware, on her daily commute, of the sheer length of security fence bordering the major US air bases in Ginowan and Kadena. This has given rise to a new body of work documenting the imposition of military installations — both Japanese and American — on the picturesque landscapes of the former Ryukyu Kingdom. Ishigaki’s panoramas are dominated by vibrant blues, greens and whites, capturing the colours of Okinawa’s sea, sky, vegetation and towns. As visually appealing as they may be, her paintings are also unsentimental in their depiction of the decidedly pragmatic forms of the islands’ urban geography, notably the prevalence of concrete as a typhoon-resistant building material. More pointed are the insertions that global politics have made into the landscape — abstract structures of obscure purpose, relay towers, battleships, warplanes, flags — often in sobering proximity to places where people live, study and work. For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Ishigaki has created a new suite of paintings — including several at larger than usual scale — taking in the areas surrounding the United States’ Futenma airbase, as well as her home island of Ishigaki. Occupying much of the densely populated municipality of Ginowan, just north of Naha, Futenma has long been the focus of civilian resentment toward the presence of military forces in Okinawa. Its much-delayed relocation has also been the subject of controversy, as new sites proposed by American and Japanese authorities meet strong opposition from local activists and political leaders. Ishigaki has also been documenting the very recent establishment of a new base for Japan’s Self Defence Forces on the island of Ishigaki, whose construction, she notes, is ongoing. In her paintings, low-slung hangars and command centres form a breach of white walls and terracotta tiles splitting verdant hills from the lush cane fields below. Inevitably attracting attention for their vivid hues, Ishigaki’s landscapes linger in the mind for the strangeness of their contrasts and frankness of their depictions. Apart from their framing — the artist’s choice of what to paint — these compositions are relatively devoid of emotional devices. If they are loaded, it is because the subjects depicted are themselves loaded. Their juxtapositions are not imagined by the artist, but rather exist in reality. Ishigaki’s brush, with its sunny shades, simply captures the subjects as they are. REUBENKEEHAN BORN 1967, ISHIGAKI, OKINAWA, JAPAN LIVES+WORKS INNAHA+OKINAWA CITY, OKINAWA KATSUKO ISHIGAKI (above) View from Kakazutakadai Park VI 2024 / Oil on canvas / 130.3 x 194cm / Commissioned for APT11 / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2024 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Image courtesy: The artist; (below) View of Henoko-Oura Bay from Sedake Hill 2024 / Oil on canvas / 130.3 x 194cm / Commissioned for APT11 / Courtesy: The artist / Photographs: Ishigaki Henoko ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 110 — 111