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

life. The highest bamboo represents the top of the chief's hut; the other pieces of bamboo represent his subjects. According to Kanak tradition, the forest- 'the house of the ancestors' -is the place where the souls of our dead live on forever. In bygone days, the bodies of the dead were taken to the forest, away from everybody's sight. There, 'mourners' would watch them decompose. Afterwards, they would collect the skulls and hide them under rocks. The spirit of the dead would then live freely in the dense forest which would become a sacred or 'taboo' place for the living. In the tribes, the story goes that from dusk to dawn, the spirits dance a 'pilou' to the melodious sound of the bamboo. The old Kanaks say that to partake in the dance of the Spirits of the Ancestors, you have to protect yourself with magic herbs before entering the forest. You must return to the tribe before dawn, and chew magic leaves and rub them on your body in order to leave the world of the spirits. Otherwise, your soul will be taken and you will vanish into thin air. Lin ONUS It appears that for many years David 1 worked the agricultural shows in rural areas. In a sideshow tent, he had erected a spring upon which a steel ball would fall. The steel ball would bounce back up but not quite as high as the point from whence it came. Al this point David would explain to the audience his theory of perpetual motion and then pass around the hat, suggesting that if people were to give him some money he could then buy a stronger spring-hence the title of my piece. David Unaipon was an aboriginal inventor active in the early 1900swhose contribution to the development of mechanical sheep shears has recently been acknowledged with the appearance of his image on the Australian $50 bill. Lin Onus, artist statement from Perpetual Motion lex. catalogue!. South Australian Museum, 1994. Luke ROBERTS Alpha-The Beginning The Garden of Eden was not in Asia but on a now sunken continent in the Pacific Ocean. The Biblical story of creation-the epic of the seven days and seven nights-came first not from the peoples of the Nile or Euphrates Valley, but from the now submerged continent, Mu-the Motherland of [Hu)Man[kind]."' In working towards a critical re– evaluation of the post-modern and post-colonial world through religious and historic references, I utilise two of the oldest artforms-performance and installation. Enter Pope Alice, The World's Greatest Living Curiosity, Pontiff of Mu, Guiding Force of the Wunderkammer etc., (my alter-ego). Her mission is to retrieve a true creative History and mystical heritage by engaging at the international level with oppressive cultural dualisms, the either/or of patriarchal systems. Pope Alice is a key to open the door of entrenched prejudice and to enable life itself to be seen as art. In pushing the boundaries of good taste my work renounces the concept of History as a rational progression of events. To quote Pope Alice who is quoting someone else, 'History is fable agreed upon.' 1. Col. James Churchward, The LostConrinent of Mu, Ives Washburn, NYC, 1931. KathyTEMIN '...every time I bought what I thought was a bird box it turned out to be a letterbox or a mouse house. Finally when I found a real bird house it looked like a modernist home. I spent some time looking for shelters and homes for animals, the kinds you see in pet shops. Obviously we don't live in these homes ourselves but it's interesting how they are informed by how we perceive comfort, what we assume a pet would like, how we assume they would want to live.' Kathy Temin, in an interview with Priscilla Pitts, Midwest, No.7,1975,pp.46-59. WAKA Chris BOOTH Pumice from the mountains Pumice used to create Pumice from the mountains occurred as a result of volcanic activity. Approximately 120 AD, in Chinese and Roman chronicles, a darkening of the sky was recorded. This was due to volcanic emissions resulting from a great eruption, which we now know helped form the crater: Lake Taupo in the central North Island. The pumice from that eruption was thickly top-dressed over a wide area. Now approximately two thousand years later, pumice continuously being eroded from the land is being washed into the vast reaches of the Whanganui River ... The pumice was gathered with respect and in consultation with the Tangata Whenua (people of the land). It was then drilled and threaded onto hundreds of metres of stainless steel cable and layered in a helix (spiral) into towering hollow pinnacles that attempt to link the pumice to its original source-the Mountains. Exploded from the earth, water home and water formed, the pumice stone 'mountains' float on water. Brett GRAHAM Kahukura Ko au ko Kahukura, he uwhi, hei whakamarumaru i nga mea katoa noho ai i raro. Ko au ko Kahukura, he aniwaniwa. E hora ana oku kara i mua i to aroaro. He tohu o nga ra kua pahure, mo apopo hoki. Ko au ko Kahukura, he pou whakamaharatanga mole tupuna whaea, Rangimarie. Ka tu au hei atamira, hei ataata mou. Ko koe he tohunga, he taniwha, he kanohi humarie o le ao kowhatu. I am Kahukura, a cover; I give shelter to all that dwell beneath me. I am Kahukura, a rainbow. I spread my colours before you, a sign of days past and days to come. I am Kahukura, a homage to our mother Rangimarie. I stand before you, to be honoured, a reflection of you. For you are a tohunga, a taniwha, a gentle face from days gone by. Kahukura is a tribute to the great weaver Rangimarie Hetet who died last year. Kahukura is a cloak that protects us and a rainbow, a sign of hope. John PULE I will go with these principles in a dust of clouds; talk to the desert and learn their language. say to the aborigine 'I live on another man's land' 'That's the problem,' was the answer. I replied 'look at me I love you so much but am a stranger who left his land not knowing the depth of his adventure? even when I spread my wings I didn't know which flight was my flight'. A journey is sad like a hand blocking out the light of the sun. take care of your legs because you need them to follow your eyes. Ben WEBB Overboard The Boat is a direct reference to the collective, eg. tribalism in Polynesian society; the Boat as a symbol for the development and future of Polynesian society, the creative journey on spiritual waterways that eclipse the Pacific Rim. My painting re-interprets this as the single figure falling overboard, repudiates cultural dis(en]franchise– ment, the creative paradigm of the outsider, an autobiographical reference to the voice of dis[en]franchised youth; the politics of Limbo, the metaphor for race relations, the pictorial freezing of the narrative, as a reference for the nostalgia of the absolute. Bronwynne CORNISH My grandmother was born on a boat My grandmother was born on a boat. Her widowed mother had left Yorkshire with her six young children, pregnant, seeking a new life in an unknown place, courageous, desperate, I don't know. I myself have always felt between two places, the old and the new, the known and the unknown; it has become a central core to my work, travelling and seeking, bringing bits of the old back to the new, stirring a new ingredient, into a tried and true mixture. So I will climb on board the waka, bringing provisions for the journey, a few tales to tell, a sack of potatoes. Who knows where this journey will take us. The current, the tides, the stars, the legacy of my grandmother, my unknown companions. The Great Mother, guide and watch over us, I place myself in your hands. This is my litany. Judy MILLAR It is not my place in the waka– woman, white, but I can place a reflector on its tail to guide my flight. For here in the Pacific I'm left conscious, not of my voice, but my reflection– sea and sky and as a white reflection I gain invisibility my work is and will be an attempt to weave the invisible- a rope, a mat, a string to follow on this journey where I will be led to new waters to glimpse before unseen refractions. Ani O'NEILL Too much emphasis is placed on individual achievement in Western society. Success is measured by how much better you are than the next person, feeding the desire for competition, rather than cooperation. At this point in time, our 'group' the 'Pacific face' has the land beneath us to hold us together. When we set out in ourvaka [waka]. we will have to hold on to each other. Lisa REIHANA I see a waka. I dream how it represents the whole from iwi (tribe) to hapu (sub– tribe) to whanau (family group) to the individual, it contains all these myriad parts whilst still being one: one shape, one vessel, one concept, strong. And it is in this waka that we navigate the Pacific Using the sacred navigational eyes to guide us, and the knowledge that came from the ones who studied the stars, night after night, season after season. The waka I see is light reflecting in the sky. It is metaphorical and real, activated by electrical energy, unseen but present. The waka has the obvious carving aspect associated with the male, but it is the navigational eyes that the women offer to activate the journey. Together and with song and karakia the journey begins. You never know destination and success until you begin the voyage. Yuk King TAN New Zealand is a place surrounded bywater .. . It is a destination for journey. The distance to, or away from these shores has become a part of our psyche. New Zealand's past is littered with stories of going-away-from or coming-to– this-land, to the extent that the past is the power of myths. It is said that whoever rules finally rewrites the past so that history is hierarchy. The richness of New Zealand's stories are still fresh with the conflict of change. Indigenous, colonial, settler, immigrant, native, outpost, colony, tribe, pacific, ... home?