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

The ideas voiced by Hou and Huang have also been explored in forums such as 'The Potential of Asian Thought', Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 1995 and international exhibitions such as 'Visions of Happiness', organised by the Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 1995, in which Fang Lijun and Feng Mengbo participated. With the rapid economic growth of countries in the Asia-Pacific region and the growing interaction between artists, critics and cultural entrepreneurs from East Asian countries in particular, the need to establish a 'New Internationalism' and a new cultural construct is being increasingly heard. Claire Roberts, Curator, Asian Decorative Arts & Design, Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Sydney, Australia Zhang Xiaojun, 'Investigation of Han Mo NewsletterVol. 21994: Hualang (Art Gallery), vol.1, 1995, p.59. Lin Tianmiao has been living and working in the United States since 1988. In 1995 she returned to China, and spends her time between New York and Beijing See Karen Smith, 'LinTianmiao', Asian Art News, vol.1, no.1, 1995, p.49 Hou Hanru, 'Beyond the cynical-China avant-garde in the 1990s', Art andAsia Pacific vol.3,no.1, 1996, pp.42-51 Yang Xiaoyan & Xu Tan, 'Our cultural power-a discussion of Western centricism and cultural colonialism: Hualang (Art Gallery), volA, 1995, p.24 Huang Zhuan, 'Text as artistic dialogue', Hualang (Art Gallery), vol.3, 1995, pp.29-32. This project was followed in 1995 with another titled '45 Degrees as aReason' for which 'forty-five degrees' was the theme. Many of the same artists participated. See Geremie R. Barme, 'To screw foreigners is patriotic: China's avant-garde nationalists', The China Journal, no.34, July 1995, pp.204-234 Huang Zhuan, 'The cultural issue for Asian artists at the end of the millenium– written on the eve of the New Asian Art Show', Jiangsu huakan (Jiangsu Art Monthly), vol.11, 1995, p22. LuHong, 'Walking outside the shadow ofWestern centric ism', Hualang (Art Gallery), vol.1, 1995,p.32 Huang, p.22 Hou Hanru, 'Entropy;Chinese artists,Western art institutions: Anew internationalism', Global Vision, Kala Press, The Institute of International Visual Arts, London,1994, p.85 Selection The selection of Chinese artists for the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial was shaped by adesire to reflect arange of contemporary concerns within the Chinese art world through the work of young and mid-career artists of stature. The curatorial team comprised Claire Roberts, Guan Wei and Wang Youshen. The team members drew on their existing knowledge of contemporary Chinese art and consulted widely with critics and scholars in China and elsewhere. The selection was made following aten– day trip to China. The team visited the studios of alarge number of artists in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.The team also consulted recent pictorial and textual material relating to artists working in other Chinese centres, notably Guangzhou, Wuhan,Nanjing and Chongqing, and those working in the West. Chinese artists included in the second Triennial: Cai Guo Qiang, Chen Yan Yin, Wang Guang Yi, Wang Jian Wei, Wang Luyan and Zhang Xiaogang. The selection of artists forthe first Asia-Pacific Triennial 1993 was confined to the ShanghailHangzhou area,artists were:Ding Yi, Li Lei, Shen Haopeng,Shi Hui, SunLiang, Xu Jiang, Yu Youhan and Zhou Changjiang Queensland has asister-state relationship with Shanghaiand extensive collaborative links through exchange exhibitions. The Directorand Deputy Director and other Queensland Art Gallery staff have visited Shanghai on anumber of occasions since 1990. The Deputy Directorwas also formerly amember of the Australia-China Council. Top Xu Bing Cultural animals-a case study of transference Beijing, 1994 Bottom Wang Jian Wei Interior television skylight Artist's Invitational Interior Design Plan Exhibition, Beijing Youth Daily, 25 August 1994 Being Oneself: Individualism in the Contemporary Art of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Oscar Ho Hing Kay In Copenhagen last May, thirteen Asian artists participated in the'< Container 96>' exhibition where they installed art works inside thirteen containers. In comparison with the eighty-six artists from the rest of the world, the Asian artists were distinctive for their concern with social and spiritual issues. The rapid social and political changes introduced by economic growth in the region create an urgency that leads these Asian artists to pay special attention to the social and human condition of their countries, instead of the elaboration of formal artistic language or exploration of personal ideas. This specific concern, along with their strong sense of urgency, gave these Asian artists' works a unique and powerful character. In the '<Container 96>' exhibition, for example, the Sanggawa group from The Philippines discussed the tragedy of Filipino overseas workers; Nalini Malani from Bombay worked around the issue of export and exploitation; while Montien Boonma from Bangkok attempted to revitalise spiritualism in a period of economic boom. Even the work of Hanoi artist Trough Tan, which is personal in his discussion of homosexuality, exhibited a specific social and political dimension as a reaction against censorship in Vietnam. All art works are created within a specific social and political context. It is impossible to erase this aspect of significance. However, it is nevertheless interesting to see the works by Ellen Pau from Hong Kong and Chen Yan Yin from Shanghai, which were distinctively personal in comparison with the work by their Asian neighbours.Their work focused on a personal world of desire and agony. Pau's video installation that showed an image of the artist continuously banging her head on the wall carried a strong sense of absurdity as well as brutality. And Chen's installation situated the video projection of the image of a female sexual organ during orgasm inside a passionate, but dangerous set-up.The piece was filled with desire and agony. Although a personal story always has a social and cultural dimension (and Chen has been investigating the issue of womanhood within Chinese culture), the emphasis of these artists was apparently outstanding. It would be naive to use examples from one exhibition, which to a certain extent reflected the view of the curator, to generalise the complexity and diversity of contemporary Asian art. However, the emphasis on the personal has been an interesting development in the region so-called 'Greater China': mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it deserves some discussion. From Liberation to Self-containment The so-called 'new art' emerged in China soon after the economic reform introduced in 1979. Artists CURAT ORI A L ESSAYS : EAST AS I A 41