11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’, presented by the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), marks the beginning of the series’ fourth decade as the pre-eminent exhibition of new art from the region. The Triennial’s longevity, and its commitment to showcasing contemporary artists’ diverse responses to local events and evolving cultural practices, has established it as a bellwether of artistic shifts and a unique site for the intersection of new approaches to art-making and evolving customary practices. What distinguishes the Triennial from other recurrent exhibition series is its depth of engagement with the art and culture of a rapidly evolving region, including countries on varying steps of the socio-economic and population ladders. As ever, this Triennial was conceived and created by many hands from the ground up — artists, curators, interlocutors, cultural allies and partners — who meaningfully bind its myriad stories together. Part of the journey towards this chapter of the Triennial has been finding a new normal in a post-pandemic world. The tenth edition opened in late 2021, when passage across Australia’s national and state borders was erratic at best. While we were fortunate to complete most of our curatorial research for that exhibition before the challenges of COVID-19 had us sheltering in place, its opening and visitation were subdued compared to previous Triennials, with borders closed and major installations supervised by artists via video calls. Despite these constraints, the 10th Triennial was filled with ambitious and highly resolved work that perhaps could only have resulted from those practical limitations — unique markers of artists’ resilience, resistance and reply in the face of pandemic lockdowns. For this eleventh chapter, members of the Triennial’s curatorium continued to travel widely in pursuit of new work from across the region, including to some of its furthest reaches, embedding themselves in communities for longer periods with thanks to a growing and generous alliance of public grantors and private supporters. A longitudinal curatorial approach, involving the team’s persistent presence in the field, has been crucial to building the transparency and trust so vital in community-based contexts, including when working with First Nations peoples. Over time, they build close working relationships that create high levels of confidence and trust in the Gallery, often with communities that may not have heard of QAGOMA or Brisbane before. The team has also collaborated with artists and curators, community organisers and local experts to facilitate the making and documentation of new work for inclusion in the exhibition. This accumulation of curatorial expertise has also fed into the growth of the Gallery’s internationally significant collection of contemporary art acquired through previous Triennials. Now totalling more than 1300 works, these holdings have been featured in geographically focused exhibitions in the years between each Triennial. Most recently, we presented ‘sis: Pacific Art 1980–2023’ in two chapters, from August 2023 to September 2024, accompanied by a major publication. The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial encompasses the work of 70 artistic projects drawn from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Among them are both senior and emerging solo artists, intimate groups of collaborators and wider community-based projects. All told, more than 500 works by 200 individual creative voices are featured. These include artists and makers whose work has not been presented in Australia before, as well as a raft of new co-curated projects investigating art forms and cultural contexts rarely seen outside their home localities. In a first for the series, this Triennial also includes artists from Saudi Arabia, Timor-Leste and Uzbekistan. The artists in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial consider knowledge in its many forms, including care for natural and urban environments, while developing nuanced approaches to storytelling. This is often pursued through an innovative and adaptive use of materials and the cultural recovery of customary practices. A significant number of artists working outside their country of origin are included, who reflect on intergenerational histories of human movement, labour migration and concepts of ‘home’. First Nations and minority and diaspora cultures are again crucial to the exhibition and its attendant programs, which together highlight the collective, performative and community-driven art-making that thrives across the region. Among the significant component of indigenous and First Nations artists are large-scale projects from Aotearoa New Zealand, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Sadly, in June this year, in the final stages of preparing for this Triennial, we received news of the passing of senior Hawaiian artist and kumu (teacher) Bernice Akamine. We are privileged to present Bernice’s last major work, a new commission that, like all her practice, is deeply considered in both its material and historical facets. Each Asia Pacific Triennial finds us seeking new ways to engage with the heterogeneous and dispersed creative communities that make up our part of the world. While QAGOMA can boast extensive curatorial experience and networks, we are careful to engage regionally based co-curators and FOREWORD ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 24 — 25 FOREWORD