11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

YIMMALINE+OKUI LALA Yim Maline (Cambodia) and Okui Lala (Malaysia) have each developed projects for Asia Pacific Triennial Kids that explore experiences of culture and language. Yim’s A Dream for the Future 2024 forms part of an ongoing series of children’s drawing projects commissioned for the Asia Pacific Triennial exhibitions. These projects highlight drawing as an accessible form of expression that can bridge both cultures and generations. As a child growing up in Cambodia in the years following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, drawing was an important form of play for Yim: ‘I didn’t have any toys to play with . . . If I wanted to play, I had to create it. Drawing was my happy world’. 1 The artist has extended her drawing practice recently to create soft fabric sculptures based on the natural world. In addition to her work as an artist, Yim is the co-founder of the Blue Art Center, an art education space in her hometown of Siem Reap, in north-western Cambodia. Yim’s drawing project explores how children at the Blue Art Center envision the future of their country. The drawings reveal deep concerns for the future of the natural world and those whose livelihoods depend on it. They also show hope for humankind’s continuing connection to nature and our ability to solve problems through technology. Yim has acknowledged that developing this project required a collaborative approach, which differs from the introspection of her solo art practice, as she has explained: ‘When I create my artwork, I am totally focused on my own universe . . . But with this project, I need to learn from the children and try to understand their universe’. 2 For Yim, A Dream for the Future is an important opportunity for children ‘to communicate with people around the world who can see their artwork and understand their wishes for the future’. 3 The project encourages children visiting the Children’s Art Centre in Brisbane to consider the imagined futures presented in the drawings from Cambodia and reflect on their own hopes. The display also features a drawing by the artist, and a recycled fabric sculpture. Collaboration also underpins Okui Lala’s ‘Have you ever tried to listen to the sound of Brisbane?’ 2024. Okui creates video works that explore language and verbal communication, especially what is lost or changed when words are translated from one language to another. Her works often feature people from her community, including family members, friends, and cultural and migrant workers, as Okui explains: I see it as a two-way relationship, a journey that travels back and forth. Our thoughts and background might be different, but I enjoy navigating through these nuances when we are making something together. 4 Okui — who is proficient in English, Malay, Mandarin and several Chinese dialects — invited bilingual and multilingual students fromWest End State School, in Brisbane, to participate in two projects. Okui, whose paternal great-grandparents came from Shantou, China, to Penang, Malaysia, in the 1920s, is interested in the way bilingual and multilingual families express themselves, as they often use a combination of languages, accents and slang. She elaborates: ‘it is not only about translating ourselves into another language, but also thinking and acting in that language’. 5 For the first component of the video project, eight students took part in a workshop to identify everyday sounds and words connected to their experience of Brisbane — magpies singing in the morning was a popular sound. Inspired by the students’ ideas, West End State School music specialists Elizabeth Flynn and Rebecca Hoole then composed lyrics and music for the song The Sounds of Brisbane 2024, incorporating English and non-English words and phrases. A recorded performance of this song — featuring the eight students and a string arrangement created by Gareth Mewes — is on display in the exhibition space. This work is complemented by a second video component in which three families discuss the English and non-English words and phrases that are meaningful to them. This video explores perceptions of language, and how it is shaped through ‘generations and time’. 6 Okui says that ‘the languages, dialects, and slang that we speak, tell us a lot about the stories of a particular time and place’. 7 Yim Maline and Okui Lala’s collaborative approach to their projects in Asia Pacific Triennial Kids embeds children’s perspectives in the artworks, encouraging visitors to consider the different ways children experience culture and community. JACQUELINE TUNNY+COSIMASCALES DANAAWARTANI, ETSONCAMINHA+BRETTGRAHAM Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia/Palestine), Etson Caminha (Timor-Leste) and Brett Graham (Aotearoa New Zealand) share a deep respect for nature, and this informs the patterning that is central to these artists’ practices. Awartani, Caminha and Graham base their contemporary work in complex, layered and often ancient traditions, and for Asia Pacific Triennial Kids, they welcome children to gain insights into their cultures. Musician and sound artist, Etson Caminha uses elements from nature, in addition to found objects, to create patterns in his sound works. For Brett Graham, natural forms are an important source of inspiration for the patterns, derived fromMāori and European traditions, that wrap around his works. Dana Awartani, who uses Islamic geometric patterns repeatedly in her varied practice, notes that ‘the core inspiration for sacred geometry is nature’. 1 Awartani has created a project that invites children to contemplate sacred geometry. At this time of war and devastation, the artist hopes to encourage an appreciation for the complex and ancient culture of her Palestinian homeland. She has explained how difficult it is ‘to witness the mass destruction and erasure’ of her cultural heritage: ‘I try to highlight the importance of cultural heritage and the urgency in preventing the destruction and conserving our history’. 2 Awartani’s Unity Within Multiplicity 2024 invites children to experience the interconnectedness and intricacy of geometry. Children select one of the paper templates created by the artist and colour the geometric patterns, using a palette inspired by traditional handmade Zellij tiles from Morocco. Children then contribute their coloured ‘tile’ to a wall, which brings all their contributions together in a cumulative and harmonious display. Awartani’s work in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial, Standing by the ruins 2022, was also inspired by this sophisticated geometric tiling technique, which she learnt by working with skilled artisans. For Awartani: . . . the philosophy of interconnectedness, which stems from Sufism [an ancient Islamic religion], is also a reflection of the multiplicity and diversity found both in nature and in humanity, that ultimately shows that everything comes from the same ‘source’. 3 Etson Caminha’s project engages children in another activity based on harmony and pattern-making. For My Kitchen Sounds 2024, Caminha recorded a series of videos of himself singing, playing bass and making sounds using objects from his kitchen. As part of a touch-screen activity, children select and layer these sounds to create their own musical composition, as Caminha explains, NOTES 1–3 Yim Maline, artist quotes from an email to the authors, 3 May 2024. 4–7 Okui Lala, artist quotes from an email to the authors, 22 May 2024. Etson Camina / My Kitchen Sounds (video still) 2024; Brett Graham / Wakuwaku (installation view, GOMA, 2024) / Commissioned for Asia Pacific Triennial Kids with support from the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation KIDS 238 — 239 ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL