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

The exchange which forms the APT elucidates an explosion of selves, histories, cultures and technologies which have found in contemporary artistic practice over the past 50 years or so a means of articulation, resistance, reinvention and utterance. (Linda Carroli, fineart forum, Vol.16 issue 12, December 2002) The Asia-Pacific Triennial displays the development of cultural plurality. However the real impetus is from artists’ individual promotion. (Li Xhe, Contemporary Art China. August 2002) This year’s event is all about ambitions realized, artistic achievements celebrated and setting the pace for bigger and better Triennials ahead. (Amber Daines, State of the Arts, September – November 2002). The APT represents the creation of a major, recurring art event concentrating on contemporary creativity from regions whose ‘authentic’ histories were supposedly extinguished by colonial conquests, and whose present circumstances are in constant and often painful transition. This is the exhibition’s enduring contribution, and needs to remain its ongoing project. (Chaitanya Sambrani, Art Monthly, November 2002). It is a cast of nice starts. Brightly shining individually n the night sky, nicely placed to be seen to advantage. (Alison Carroll, Artlink, December 2002) APT 2002 is different from the past. Good. It will be interesting to see the journey it takes us on next time. (Alison Carroll, Artlink, December 2002) Once unfamiliar names have become familiar; the measure of their art, unfathomable when it was first encountered, has become accessible as the cultural contexts which inform their arts’ creation are better understood. (Jonathan Mane Wheoki, Art New Zealand, No.105/Summer 2002-03) Deploying heavyweight works from seminal characters Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama and Lee U-fan – all held in the Queensland Art Gallery’s expansive Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection – this Triennial is a consolidatory review not only of the region’s continuing influence, but also of the exhibition project itself. (Mark Gomes, Broadsheet. Vol 31 No 4) For almost a decade now, the Asia-Pacific Triennial, unquestionably Australia’s most important contemporary art exhibition, has established a circuit of cultural flows which has effectively disrupted and challenged the traditional trade routes tying Australia to a particular imperial/colonial history and geography. (Helen Grace, Eyeline, Summer 2002/2003) It has played a major role in developing QAG’s reputation as a world leader in the collection of contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific region. (Sandra McLean, The Courier-Mail, 13 August 2002) APT is all about getting up close and personal to the artists. (Sandra McLean, The Courier-Mail, 13 August 2002) …the real hit of the opening of the QAG’s third (sic) Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art was a small room where crowds eagerly queued up to enter and experience “infinity” (Sandra McLean, The Courier-Mail, 13 September 2002) In the art of the APT, there is a kind of naiveté, an engagement with the senses and emotions and not ideas. (Rex Butler, The Courier-Mail, 21 September 2002) The works in the APT appear exhilarating today in their very lack of rhetoric, their unembarrassed sensuality, the absence of art-historical consciousness – all things now impossible within our own Western art forms. (Rex Butler, The Courier-Mail, 21 September 2002) That’s one of the greatest strengths of the APT – the work just simply stands on its own merits. (quote by Zane Trow in ‘Out there on the bloody edge’, by Olivia Stewart, The Courier-Mail, 5 October 2002) The Premier’s Awards were held amid the Asia-Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery, a show which many believe has put us on the cultural map, mainly because we realised before anyone else we had to acknowledge the visual culture of our Pacific neighbours. (Sandra McLean, The Courier-Mail, 12 October 2002) The audience most engaged are the Polynesian families, clapping, dancing, and singing along with devilish smiles of enjoyment. (Julianne Pierce, Real Time, December – January 2003) 67