The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia, 1996 : Report

Tom Deko is one of the most established young artists in PNG. His sculpture, Scrap metal band reflects the popularity of Afro-American, African and Carribean popular music in PNG. My country Papua New Guinea is very rich with its cultural traditions. And speaking well over seven hundred different languages and each language having its own different cultural and traditional beliefs and practices. . . I have made it my number one and foremost intention to adapt these traditional themes and express them in my work. . . . My second intention is to express in my work these new changes, events and activities which occur every time in the society and within the environment I live in . . . Here, I have tried to express the changes that have happened to our kind of traditional music by the introduction and influence of Western music or by what we generally term here back home as 'white men's music. (extract from artist's statement) Richard Joeban Harry is one of the most eminent creators of dance machines in the Torres Strait Islands. The installation Sik-o comprises ten female dance machines commonly used in the performance of the sik-o song and dance . The sik-o performance tells a story of the rough sea, the dance machines symbolising the sea spray and the morning star. Although the Torres Strait Islands are part of Australia, the work is presented alongside the art of Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Vanuatu , in recognition of the strong cultural links between these peoples. Kaibel Ka'a is represented with four shields. The rich tradition of shield making is still practised in Papua New Guinea; however, the materials and decoration are radically different to those originally used . The artist, who is also a signwriter, has decorated these shields using images from popular culture such as the comic character Phantom and the 'six 2 six idiom' (which means a 'dusk to dawn' party). Michael Mel remarks in the Second Triennial catalogue: The proposition that artists like Kaibel are putting to us is for a new intellectual and cultural freedom that first and foremost must guarantee their freedom to think and articulate through their selected medium of expression . 29