APT 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia : Report

Lisa Reihana (WEEK 1) Lisa Reihana is both an artist and lecturer at the Manukau Institute of Technology, School of Art & Design, Moving Image Department, Auckland. Her practice as an artist embraces numerous techniques including fast-edit video, music video clips and clay-mation. During the Workshops, Lisa screened and discussed with the participants a selection of her video work – some of which exist as discrete video works while others are integrated within larger installation and performative works. Her four-day workshop concentrated on the integration of sound and fast-edit vision as well as touching on plastic animation techniques. During her introductory talk at the QAG, Lisa initiated a detailed discussion about her work in APT 2002, ‘Digital Marae’. She explained the importance of a marae in Maori culture as a meeting place where stories and songs and conversation is shared. As Lisa Reihana travels, she continues to creates a ‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ marae which exists as a mobile collection of stories, or ‘gifts’ given by different people she meets. This continuing ‘Digital Marae’ project was the basis for her workshop. Her intention was for each of the participants to offer ‘a gift’ in the form of a short video that would contribute to, and activate Lisa’s existing ‘Digital Marae’. Throughout the workshop, Lisa collaborated with participants and offered them technical advice with various editing suites and conceptual direction. Access was provided to hand held digital video cameras, mini disc players to record audio and Mac G4 computers with Premier , Photoshop and Final Cut Pro programs. Participants realised six new video works created either individually or in pairs and were compiled in a sequence entitled ‘Gift’. Nalini Malani (WEEK 2) Nalini Malani constructs installations that are energised by the familiar immediacy of video and filmic languages. The artist also extends the practices of drawing and painting into video and film. Her installations often utilise her own drawings as projected animations as one component within larger works. Committed to the role of the artist as ‘social activist’, Malani is a senior multimedia artist with an extensive exhibition history. Nalini Malani’s video practice is extensive, she produces single channel works as well as integrating video within installation and collaborative performative works. For the workshop, Nalini focused on a discursive analysis of women in Indian cinema. Entitled ‘Discussing Gender’ Nalini Malani’s workshop consisted of two screenings a day of Indian documentaries and films which drew attention to the depiction and presentation of women in Indian cinema. The films were politically charged and controversial and thus activated intense discussions amongst the participants. This workshop concentrated on personal exchanges and critical discussions with participants taking as their touchstone the selection of films presented by Nalani. Song Dong (WEEK 2) Song Dong has played a leading role in the new wave of avant-garde video practice in China. The artist has produced a number of works that are quite short in length but exist as powerful video pieces that focus on a single contained idea/attitude/contemplation. His videos are often filmed in real time, are not heavily manipulated and often document performances. Song Dong began his workshop with a series of physical and psychological group exercises based on the idea of ‘mirror’. These activities were followed by close group discussions concentrating on Song Dong’s question posed to the group, ‘What is Mirror?’. This question formed the basis of his proposition to the group that they respond to this question in the form of a new video work of exactly one minute’s duration. Participants had access to hand-held digital video cameras, data projectors and editing suites. Once footage had been gathered and the raw video collated, each participant screened their work-in- progress to the group for further discussion. Following this session, the works were edited and sequenced into a series of entitled ‘What is Mirror?’ In addition, during the Workshop, Song Dong created a new video piece with the assistance of his workshop participants. The location was the public recreational site of Southbank on the Brisbane River, the final work was entitled ‘Walking through the Mirror’, a work which the artist intends to donate to the QAG. Johan PIJNAPPEL (WEEK 1 + 2) Johan Pijnappel (b. 1958) is an art historian/curator whose early initiatives include projects such as the influential 'Art meets Science and Spirituality in a changing economy' (Amsterdam 1990, Copenhagen 1996). Since 1996, Johan has for many years been deputy director/curator of the World Wide Video Festival in Amsterdam. He has also maintained an impressive career as a writer on contemporary art. Today he resides in India, where his international curating and writing focuses on the video art of Asia. For the Workshops, Johan Pijnappel presented an illustrated lecture and discussion with both groups each week. Johan spoke from his own curatorial experiences addressing issues related to the processes of curating and exhibiting international video art programs as well as aspects of what he ‘looks for’ throughout the selection process. This proved to be an extremely practical and useful overview for all participants form ‘the curator’s‘ perspective. 145