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

Plaited baskets were and are ubiquitous items of daily use, not only in this area but throughout Vanuatu and indeed throughout the Pacific. They were and are made by women in a variety of forms -larger and cruder for bringing home horticultural produce, firewood, and the like; smaller and finer for carrying personal possessions, everything from tobacco and fishing gear to bibles and school books. Baskets were also widely used as gifts, both in casual and formal contexts such as weddings, and as valuables that might be incorporated into compensation payments arising from offences and disputes. The basket, like the Papua New Guinean string bag (bi/um), is identified with the womb-in some languages the same word refers to both– but it is not understood as a singularly or wholly feminine object. In Futuna, in southern Vanuatu, plaiting elements are distinguished as male and female; weaving terms and names of parts of the basket refer to sexual intercourse, marriage, and women's breasts. Hence the interwoven product is consistent with larger understandings of the complementarity of male and female powers and values in the constitution of sociality. Yet it should probably be understood less as an overt symbol, than as an object of manifold but generally implicit significance. Its meaning is in its making and use, in the everyday women's work, in its transmission to kin and to friends, and in the woven character it imparts to social life. 1 This is to say that baskets are intimately connected with indigenous culture. But it would be entirely wrong to suppose that they are 'traditional' artifacts, though this is not because these artifacts are now produced for tourists. As it happens, they are made either for personal or local use, or for sale through handicraft markets; but those sold aren't different from those that remain within the community. Baskets are non-traditional in other ways, that are especially obvious in the case of the Melsisi piece illustrated. Although, in the past, dyed plaits were frequently used to create geometric patterns, over the last decade this has been done in a much bolder way, through the use of commercial colours. In addition to the simple geometric designs to which weaving is conducive, Christian crosses and words are often now added to mats as well as baskets, at least in some areas. The wording 'Melsisi/Pentecost/Vanuatu/Souvenir of the year 1995' could be seen to borrow the model of tee-shirts and souvenirs, in declaring local pride, while situating the village within the nation, within a Christian community, and within a global temporality. The bright colours immediately distinguish this basket from those of other parts of Vanuatu, and this marking manifests a further dimension of the humble object's modernity. While peoples within the country were always formerly differentiated by 18 I Es sAvs distinctive dialects and languages, cults, rituals, songs, and by certain artifacts, baskets now function as highly visible emblems of local style. In their generality and ubiquity, they also, however, manifest the common Melanesian identity of Vanuatu's citizens. John Pule's painting Atepeli moe tuagafale (The heart and foundation of the house) 1993 is a radically different kind of work: a painting on canvas, the work of an artist who has a dealer. Yet it is not a work of 'international' art. With other paintings, it maps particular villages on Niue, and tells stories of the arrival of Christianity and the pain of migration from the island to the alien world of New Zealand. These histories are not presented in any structured narrative, but instead are present with creatures that might be gods or monsters, in the act of catching or devouring. The painting is neither a figurative nor an abstract work, but one that is partly representational, partly cartographic, and partly historical and mythological. Pule creates a shamanistic iconography, full of pain and anger, as well as sexual joy. His work draws loosely on Niuean barkcloth, but does not emulate traditional Polynesian genres in any rigid way. 2 These works are both contemporary. The basket is produced outside the art world and the global economy yet in close articulation with it. Its novel colours and words manifest the very interweaving of kinship, modernity, the tourist market, and the nation. Pule's painting, on the other hand, is produced within the art world, yet speaks from and of a culture and sense of history that lies beyond both. These are not simply differences in the content of art works of the kind that might be detected anywhere and everywhere, but distinctions between the forms that cultural expression can take. It could be suggested that the term 'contemporary art', if stretched across these differences, incorporates incommensurable things, and becomes meaningless. My view is rather that incommensurability is its meaning. Global relations of cultural exchange create frames in which heterogeneous cultural expressions are placed together in fora such as the Asia-Pacific Triennial. The challenge the Triennial offers is that of seeing beyond the superficial equivalence implied by this framing. To appreciate the works' incomparability is to respect the limits of globalisation itself. NicholasThomas, Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 1 Idraw upon Janet D. Keller, 'Woven world: Neotraditional symbols of unity in Vanuatu', Mankind, vol.18, no.1, 1988, pp.1-13. See also Nicholas Thomas, Oceanic Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1995. 2 For further discussion, see NicholasThomas, 'Lost gods: The paintings of John Pule', Artand Asia Pacific, vol.1, no.4, October1994, pp.96-103 Top Pandanus basket, Melsisi, central Pentecost, Vanuatu. Pandanus and commercial dyes Height: 26cm (approx.) Collection NicholasThomas, Canberra. The woven wording reads 'Melsisi PentecOte Vanuatu Souvenir de l'ann~e 1995'. Bottom John Pule Atepeli moe tuagafale (The heart and foundation of the house) 1993 Oil on canvas 212x182cm Collection: Private collection