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

SPECTACLE APT 2002 Opening day, 12 September, 2002 Suh Do-Ho, Blue-green bridge Another important consideration when developing the Triennial’s exhibition design was the need to provide spectacle. We wanted to create a viewing environment that engaged not only our audiences’ intellects, but also their emotions. Display can assist in this is by ensuring that art works have an exciting visual impact. One of the most distinctive display spaces within the Gallery that can deliver this level of spectacle is the Watermall, so a lot of consideration was given to which works were displayed in this space. Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus garden was chosen to be installed in water feature, with tremendous positive impact on visitors of all ages. CONTEMPORARY APPEAL — CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Kids’ APT Bug Master with children Children in Nalini Malani’s Sacred and profane Over the past decade the Triennials have achieved an impressive growth in viewing audiences. Key to this growth has been the great appeal of the project to younger visitors who made up some 47% of APT3’s audience. A key objective for the APT 2002 was to reaffirm the project’s appeal to this target audience by creating a display environment and support materials that were seductive and appealing to younger visitors. It was very much with this audience in mind that we developed our display furniture and fittings and selected the colours and materials. Hopefully, by providing a fun, engaging and welcoming environment for younger audiences now, we are encouraging them to become regular life-long art museum visitors. An emphasis on catering for children and their parents has also crossed over to the Triennial with the presentation of Kids’ APT in both the 1999 and 2002 exhibitions. For the Gallery’s stand-alone children’s exhibitions, the only real limits to the display design are our imaginations. For Kids’ APT, however, we have a particular challenge in developing a fun, interactive environment that does not jar or detract from the sophistication of the overall Triennial display. For Kids’ APT 2002 this was achieved by continuing the overall look into the Kids’ APT spaces, and incorporating the graphic of the Kids’ APT mascot, Bug Master, as a recognisable and friendly symbol for children and parents. 19