11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

CURATORIAL INTRODUCTION ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ celebrates diverse narratives, forms of knowledge and approaches to art-making, providing an opportunity for artists and communities to consider the intersecting cultural landscapes of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. In this Triennial, concepts of crisis, community and care are deeply present. While they are widely invoked in current art discourses, these themes are grounded in the work of artists responsive to concrete conditions. Artists, makers and thinkers have become attuned to recognising vulnerabilities and creating time and space for the healing and care of culture, community, land and one another. This is expressed through various gestures, from acts of empathy and mourning to revival, critique and social action. Curatorial research and planning for this Triennial commenced during a period of reconnection following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the trauma and uncertainty of the global crisis began to fade, so too did many promises of a reconsidered future, as unsettling familiar issues re‑emerged. For artists responding to the world around them, this return to ‘business as usual’ brought renewed attention to the crises of climate change and ongoing environmental destruction. That the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial exhibition itself was interrupted by flooding associated with an extreme local weather event only served to emphasise the urgency of these concerns. Conflicts and warfare, both new and longstanding, have raised the spectres of genocide, the destruction of culture and loss of heritage, both built and intangible, and highlighted the pressing nature of indigenous sovereignty. The complex residues of colonial histories have also provided focal points that artists and art institutions must address. Processes of collectivity and co-creation are central to the Triennial and manifest in multiple ways. These encompass focused projects with in‑country co-curators or creative partners, as well as collectively driven artworks. Relational structures are fundamental to artists working with clan members in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and to indigenous groups in Nepal, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu that develop collaborative projects for the Triennial. Collective modes of creating and sharing knowledge are essential to the many First Nations artists in this exhibition, whose work fosters intergenerational knowledge, skills, stories and values. Honouring the traditional custodians of the place where the Asia Pacific Triennial occurs is fundamental to defining it as a site of exchange with a long history of cultural importance. Cultural knowledge is deeply embedded in the practices of artists Kim Ah Sam, Karla Dickens, D Harding and Darrell Sibosado, and each works closely with their respective mobs, following processes deeply connected to Country. The Māori collectives AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action) and Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts seek to create respectful and meaningful exchange as manuhiri (visitors) with Australian First Nations communities. Such connections and solidarities provide a grounding for other artists in this Triennial who confront issues of sovereignty, the nurturing of culture and language, relationships with the natural world, and the rights of indigenous peoples. The reframing of artistic practice to acknowledge the fundamental value of establishing and nurturing relationships with one another and the natural world resonates across this Triennial. Artists cast new eyes over the places and communities we inhabit — acknowledging their wonder, fragility and underlying disparities — to emphasise the need to protect the environment, not only for the health of the planet, but also for the role it plays in culture. Building solidarities and structures of support to confront systems of power and inequity has also become important. As the Asia Pacific Triennial’s curatorial team reconnected in person with artists and collaborators in the region, conceptual connections were made between projects, providing multiple entry points to pressing thematic concerns. The sensitivities of local environments demand social action, be it engaging with current ecological situations, as in Trương Công Tùng’s Khu Vườn Lạc Hướng (A disoriented garden) 2023–ongoing and Brett Graham’s dystopic views of extraction along Aotearoa New Zealand North Island’s Taranaki coast, or through appeals to imagination, cosmologies and futurism as a source of environmental activism, as in the work of Yim Maline or Rithika Merchant. Karla Dickens and Joydeb Roaja also address the persistent connections between environmental concerns and indigenous sovereignty. Expansive considerations of nature as material and muse are expressed through the deployment of found, mended and recycled materials. Nature is also invoked through soil and clay in the work of Mindanao artist Salima Saway Agra-an, Dana Awartani and Mai Nguyễn-Long, as well as in natural, handmade or coloured pigments in the practices of D Harding, Dawn Ng and Varunika Saraf. The prevalence of literal or metaphorical gardens throughout the exhibition can also be seen as reflecting on the notions of care and environmental protection. Standing at the intersection of nature and culture, gardens can be carefully ‘curated’ spaces (to use artist Wardha Shabbir’s term), ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 32 — 33 CURATORIAL INTRODUCTION