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

MEDIA QUOTES EXHIBITION This year’s APT, as it is fondly known, is a stunner. (Peter Hill, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 2002) … the Fourth Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery, is resoundingly successful. (John McDonald, Australian Financial Review, 19 September 2002). … it is full of work that is brilliant and inspirational (Sasha Grishin, Canberra Times, 21 September 2002). … it succeeds the much older Biennale of Sydney as Australia’s most significant international art event. (Michael Hutak, Bulletin with Newsweek, 24 September 2002). … curated in-house, with the expertise the Queensland Art Gallery has accumulated during the past nine years… This is a much more cohesive statement about contemporary Asian art... (Louise Martin-Chew, Weekend Australian, 28 September 2002). From the beginning, the Asia-Pacific Triennial revealed the complexities, political contradictions and poetic paradoxes that riddle so many Asian societies. (Robert Nelson, Age, 28 December 2002) The APT has always been a difficult exhibition to negotiate and absorb because of its scale, so in some ways, this concentration on fewer artists makes it more navigable and comprehendible. (Linda Carroli, fineart forum, Vol.16 issue 12, December 2002) At the moment the Gallery is holding its blockbuster to end all blockbusters, the gallery’s signature event, its sexiest happening, the Asia- Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. (Phil Brown, Brisbane News, 25 September 2002) Boasting such heavy hitters as Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama, and Montien Boonma amid a roster of younger artists, the APT looks set to become a powerful arbiter in a newly configured East-meets-West art world – and a telling indicator of Australia’s inherently protean identity. (Jeff Gibson, Art Forum, September 2002) This show is about quality rather than quantity. The APT has come of age. (Amber Daines, State of the Arts, September – November 2002). As if having a monopoly on yearlong sunshine was not enough, Brisbane is now emerging as something of a Mecca for contemporary art. (KS, Monument, October/November 2002). The APT has become the defining art exhibition in QAG’s repertoire, attracting attention from across the country and from many parts of the world. Alongside other ventures, it has contributed something unique to Australia’s engagement with the world, moving away from a Euro- centric discourse to embark upon a more regionally nuanced conversation. (Chaitanya Sambrani, Art Monthly, November 2002). …APT 2002 was a fascinating and thoughtful exhibition with a strong emotional content. It consolidated the previous Triennials within a tighter thematic framework ... The inclusion of artworks from the Queensland Art Gallery’s own collection also gave a strong sense of how the Gallery’s commitment to the Asia-Pacific Triennials has shaped its collection, particularly that of contemporary Asian Art. (Melanie Eastburn, Asian Art News, November-December 2002) Queensland Art Gallery Director Doug Hall said on ABC TV the night of the opening that he saw it as a show where ‘contemporary art and mass appeal go hand in hand’. It is a big ask, and in the expectant and interested faces of the people flooding the Gallery in the days after the opening it seemed to be being answered. (Alison Carroll, Artlink, December 2002) Whereas the very idea of Asia-Pacific had, in 1993, seemed exotic, artificial and even preposterous, in 2002 the geocultural entity, as it is encompassed by this exhibition, is taken as normal. (Jonathan Mane Wheoki, Art New Zealand, No.105/Summer 2002-03) It is in a sense a ‘grown up’ APT where sixteen artists of note from throughout the Asia-Pacific region have been selected for an exhibition that is as much about the long term achievements of its participants as it is a survey of regional practice. (David Broker, Broadsheet, Vol 31 No 4) After a remarkable four events in under a decade, the latest Asia-Pacific Triennial (APT) provides a space for reflection on the earlier events and, as if to demand such a response, the very structure of the exhibition spatialises the need. (Helen Grace, Eyeline, Summer 2002/2003) …. the Queensland Art Gallery … is the driving force behind what many international observers have come to regard as one of the most useful and informative of the world’s randomly proliferating contemporary art surveys. (Sebastian Smee, The Art Newspaper, August 2002) Its success, both in terms of attendance figures and wider influence, has given the host institution a sense of purpose unique among Australian museums. (Sebastian Smee, The Art Newspaper, August 2002) 64