The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Present Encounters: Mirror of the Future Caroline Turner The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has expanded the geographical spread eastward and westward to include India and a much greater Pacific presence. Over one hundred artists will be participating in 1996, many more than the seventy-six in the first Triennial three years ago. As Director Doug Hall indicates in his Foreword, the Triennial project encompasses a long-term commitment by the Queensland Art Gallery to a series of exhibitions, conferences and publications which will generate a greater knowledge within Australia of the contemporary art of this part of the world and facilitate intellectual exchanges of ideas and contacts, especially among artists, in the Asia-Pacific region.1 The first Triennial in 1993 proved to be a landmark exhibition and this was acknowledged at the time by international reviews, participants' comments, and the reaction of visitors. The overwhelming nature of this response caught us somewhat by surprise, particularly the international response, which indicated a regional and international significance for the Triennial in helping to redress a lack of knowledge in the West of the dynamic contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. 2 There is no doubt that, for Australian audiences, the 1993 Triennial constituted a revelation and a first exposure on this scale to the contemporary art of this region. 3 Australia is not, however, in a position to dictate the outcomes or predicate a new paradigm for interpreting regional art. As former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has noted: 'A geographically remote country of seventeen million people in a world of five and a half billion should not get ideas above its station'. 4 Nevertheless, Australia, with its multicultural population and situated, as it is, geographically and increasingly culturally between two worlds, is uniquely placed to provide a natural and acceptable site for a forum on issues related to art in our rapidly changing region. Our challenge is to provide a forum which is not a mirror of the past but one open to the future. The concentration on contemporary art is in no sense a denial of the great and enduring achievements of the ancient and historical art of, the region. While people and nations bring their past with them into the present, contemporary art reflects the changing nature of contemporary societies. It is the contemporary societies of the Asia-Pacific which are of overwhelming present interest. We have recognised the vital aspect of recent history by the publication, to coincide with the first exhibition, of a major book, Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art ofAsia and the Pacific, 5 and by our commitment to curating a large-scale exhibition for the year 2000 and holding a series of conferences on the subject of Asian and Western modernism. This challenging concept will bring together the research of experts in twenty-five countries to examine the art of the twentieth century as that century closes. How does the current Triennial differ from the 1993 Triennial? First, while the 1993 Triennial was essentially concerned with tradition and change, with the objective of bringing the past into the present, the second Triennial has focused on the immediate present. The concept of 'Present Encounters' involves both engaging the present and artistic encounters in today's world. Secondly, in the course of the original project and the forums which developed from it, definitions of contemporary and traditional art underwent modification. Nicholas Thomas analyses this crucial point in his essay in this catalogue: 'Contemporary Art and the Limits of Globalisation'. Thirdly, the importance of context, both historical and the immediate present, has been reinforced, as has been our objective to extend the discourse of the Triennial beyond narrow art parameters. Geeta Kapur, David Elliott and Pat Hoffie all emphasise the necessity for this in their catalogue contributions. The world is changing and so are cultural viewpoints. Fourthly, gone is the need five years ago, or even three years ago, to justify such an exhibition of contemporary Asian and Pacific art, as have lingering caveats about the contemporary art of this region being uninteresting or only 'derivative' from Western art. In the previous exhibition the thesis was proposed that Euro-Americentric perspectives are no longer an appropriate formula for evaluating the art of this region. That is reinforced in the intellectual context of the second Triennial. The Asia-Pacific Triennial and associated events have been but one factor in contributing to a change which manifests the growing appreciation worldwide of the need to discard Euro-Americentric and Cold War shibboleths which, in the past, led Western scholars largely to ignore the modern and contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. Fifthly, our concept of the Triennial as an artistic endeavour, ;iota political one, has been justified by the international reaction to the first Triennial, as has our belief that Australia is an equal participant, not an arbitrator in this process.This project is about revelation not arbitration. The Triennial is not in any sense a missionary endeavour, unless it is to 'convert' our fellow Australians. Sixthly, and perhaps most importantly, our commitment to building long-term relationships based on mutual respect, to the principles of co-curatorship and to working with experts in each of the countries to develop the themes for the exhibitions and to select and write about the artists, has only been strengthened and extended for this Triennial. Forty-two Australian and international curators from fifteen countries formed our second Triennial curatorial teams and seventy-seven different international writers have contributed to this catalogue. Fifty artists and thirty art critics from twenty countries are participating as speakers in the international conference. Our permanent collection of Asian and Pacific contemporary art and our extensive library collection and artists research database are now being used by scholars from throughout the world. Themes of the Exhibition The second Triennial exhibition appears visually different from the first and sometimes in ways which we did not expect. Those visual differences can in part be explained by the decision to focus this exhibition with absolute precision on the issues of the present, whereas some of the art in the last Triennial provided a bridge to understanding the past and the origins of recent developments. Additional countries have been included. In some cases also the issues are different. Contemporary art necessarily reflects the circumstances of its own times, a fact which can distort as well as illuminate. Hence our strong emphasis on a continuing series of exhibitions over a period of time. The decision not to impose a single perspective beyond the integrating concept of 'Present Encounters' was the result of a series of national and international forums and consultations with curatorial team members. It was agreed that no single perspective or constricting theme could cover the variety of art approaches within the region. As with the first Triennial, a number of considerations informed the selections by those curatorial teams. These are outlined in the different essays on the selections in this catalogue and in Senior Project Officer Rhana Devenport's essay on the curatorial process. We asked each curatorial team coordinator to provide an essay elucidating the selections and they reveal the complex factors shaping their appraisals. In the end, however, it is the voices of the individual artists which are the strongest elements in the exhibition, not themes enunciated by curators. As is clear from the essays on the selections, although the Triennial is in no sense based on national representation (nor are the works displayed by country), context is a vital consideration. Practicality almost inevitably meant a country approach in forming curatorial teams. Context also made it difficult to impose categorisations which would potentially distort through a superficial Es sAys I 11