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

Yukinori Yanagi presented an Asia-Pacific ant farm. I n specially constructed transparent boxes, he created with coloured sand the flags of various nations involved with the Pacific. Ants were released into the boxes to move through the flags, mixing the sand and consequently, dismantling the individual flag designs. Yanagi started working with ant farms in 1 990 and has since created several ant farm instal lations including flags from Asia, the Pacific and Europe. His work refers to cultural and geographical mobility in contemporary society; it alludes to people's holiday or work travels but also, to people who are forced to leave their countries as refugees. The ant farm reflects the erosion of symbols and the loss of national and cultural identities. It also alludes to the possible erosion of the concept of the 'nation state' , introducing the artist's vision of a new and possibly better world. The artist says: It is not necessary to feel sad when you find a symbol of yours deconstructed here in my work 'Pacific' . This deconstruction continues as other recognisable symbols are dismantled too, until a new world - a single new emblem - is introduced. (extract from artist's statement) SOUTH KOREA Choi Jeong Hwa presented the visitors to the Second Triennial with a huge synthetic tulip and an inflatable garden comprising palm trees and flowers. His plants are kept 'alive' by an air compressor and will remain vividly coloured and attractive 'forever', never wilting or dying. Addressing issues of a 'throw away' culture, Choi invites the viewer to determine what is truly disposable in a rapidly industrialised society. The work investigates opposing concepts such as real and invented, natural and man-made. The artist questions in his statement: From the petals of [the] ecological system--broken , ripped destroyed and killed by the touch of the hand--destroyed by indiscriminate terrorism on nature , imitation nature and artificial flowers flourish and bloom. Is this flower that cannot be standardised and seen in one glimpse really a thing we have created out of necessity? 7