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

being an economic colony of Europe or the United States becomes less and less real in Asia as the centre of world finance shifts to the Pacific rim, yet South-East Asian commentators on contemporary art talk of foreign domination. Perhaps it is more a case of willing submission to notions of artistic experiment and forced evolution which are essentially Western. Even in Japan (regarded by South-East Asians as part of 'the North'-the colonial superpowers which have traditionally dominated them), adventurous contemporary art gets very little support from Japanese collectors. The Australian artist and writer Pat Hoffie has referred to a 'floating tribe' of artists from Asian countries whose work is greatly admired abroad, but hardly collected at home.These artists travel widely, becoming perennials in the biennials and triennials of the world, but somewhat at odds with their own society. For Australia those countries comprise our North, and include many of the industrial giants set to dominate the world economy. As they come to set political and economic agendas, it seems logical that the artistic agenda will follow. Currently, the growing wave of interest in contemporary art produced in that region seems to be a foreign influence which is possibly treated with some suspicion. This may change, however. It seems from the evidence that there is no region on earth where change can be so dramatic and so successful. Timothy Morrell, Curator, Contemporary Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia Artists in 1993: Oadang Christanto, Heri Dono, Nyoman Erawan,FX Harsono, Sudjana Kerton, A.O. Pirous, Ivan Sagito, Srihadi Soedarsono and Dede Eri Supria. Artists in 1996:Nindityo Adipurnomo, Anusapati, Arahmaiani, Marintan Sirait and Agus Suwage. 1996 Curatorial Team:Timothy Morrell and Jim Supangkat. The Queensland Art Gallery has established an enduring relationship with Indonesia, with visits by the Director and Deputy Director in 1991,1992, 1994,1995 and 1996 and by anumber of other Gallery staff over six years. The Deputy Director is a member of theAustralian Government's Australia-Indonesia Institute. Delegates at the Second Asia– Pacific Triennial International Forum,1995 Five Malaysian Artists Simon Elliott It is a daunting task to choose only five artists from a country as culturally rich and diverse as Malaysia. When the curatorial team of Neil Manton (curatorial coordinator), Judy Kean and Simon Elliott travelled to Malaysia in October 1995, it was our collective aim to consult widely, and within constraints of time and geography, see as much art as possible. For a period of a week the curatorial team met with artists, curators, lecturers, gallery dealers, collectors, writers and art critics in the capital Kuala Lumpur and its environs, as well as in Penang to the north and across to Kuching in Sarawak. This breadth of consultation is reflected in the final list of artists; two are working in Kuching, one in Kuala Lumpur, another outside Kuala Lumpur and one in the province of Kuala Kangsar. The invited conference speaker, Zainol Abidin Ahmad Shariff (Zabas), is currently working in Penang. Further, the recommendations included a range of media from drawing, painting (both figurative and non– figurative), sculpture and electronic art, while the artists themselves range in ages from twenty-nine to forty-five. It needs to be clear, however, that the curatorial team's recommendations for Malaysia should not be seen as a survey of current Malaysian artistic practice. Rather, the five artists were chosen because their work specifically dealt with a number of the contemporary issues facing their country. Malaysia, like other countries in the region, is undergoing rapid and profound change in both its social and economic spheres. Its multicultural population includes a range of ethnic groups such as Malays, Chinese, Indians and lbans (indigenous Malays), all with different languages and religions. The nation is spread across the two geographically separated land masses of Peninsula Malaysia and East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. In the 1990s Malaysia is striving for a prosperous future but at the same time is looking back to its heritage to make sense of its history, to help define what Malaysia might be in the future. It is this context which informed the curatorial team's recommendations. Wong Hoy Cheong's charcoal series deals specifically with issues of family, migration, history, class and culture. Tracing his own family relations, which at times have been split by racial struggles, poverty, war and colonisation, he considers the importance of families and 'how the easily forgotten dreams of one person can become the dreams of a people'. Eng Hwee Chu's rich paintings also centre on the family but her focus is on the present and the personal. Much of her imagery includes herself and her Chinese heritage as the artist examines the pressures placed on women in the modern world. Her work is full of domestic symbols as she explores the importance of marriage and children and the impact of her artist husband's own art practice on her work. In a very different light, Raja Shahriman's series Killing tools includes heavy and brutal metal sculptures full of lacerating spikes and knives. Working outside the metropolitan centres in his home province, Shahriman's constructions question the ingenuity of humans to create such elaborate tools that are used against other humans. His tools do not discern who or what they cut. They ask the viewer to consider whether we, the spectators, are the victims or the perpetrators of such violence. Fauzan Omar, the oldest of the selected artists, shares concerns with many of the younger artists. His one work, made up of multiple canvas panels with painted canvas flowers looks, at first glance, like a strikingly beautiful field of flowers. But Fauzan is concerned with the destruction of nature. Our love of beautiful natural things like flowers, wood, etc., and our desire to fill our homes with them, creates extreme demands on this fragile resource. By the very simple act of picking a flower, we are in fact terminating the very life of the object that so impressed us. Working as the only major electronic artist in Malaysia, Hasnul Jamal Saidon's installation takes as its inspiration, Malaysian folklore. The work Kdek, Kdek Ong! (Bahasa for the sound frogs make) is at one level a humorous work but also attempts to address universal issues of parochialism and ignorance. Drawing on the lesson from an old Malaysian proverb 'Like a frog under a coconut shell', Hasnul's work attempts to highlight the danger of ignorance and prejudice. This work's theme, in particular, seems to strike at the very heart of one of the major tenets of the Asia-Pacific Triennial. The team was critically aware of ensuring that such recommendations were made with substantial consultation.We received excellent advice and support from Wairah Marzuki (Acting Director) and the staff of the National Art Gallery, Malaysia. Aside from acting as the coordination point for the country, the National Art Gallery hosted a day where invited artists presented and discussed their works directly with the team. Commercial gallery dealers such as Wong Mei Wan from GaleriWan and the staff of Petronas and Pelita Hati galleries discussed the contemporary scene and provided valuable insights, recommendations and information on art works and artists that the team should consider. Likewise we are indebted to the 1993 Asia-Pacific Triennial artists like Sulaiman Esa and Chew Teng Beng, as well as other senior artists such as Yeo Jingleng, Long Thien Shih, Latiff Mohidin, Redza Piyadasa CURAT ORI AL E s SAY s : S o UTH AND SOUTH - EAST ASI A I 53