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

Top Jennifer French Approaches to Auckland: V 1992 Selenium-toned gelatin silver print 17x43cm Still 1996 Selenium-toned gelatin silver print 123x50.5cm Middle Engraving after Sydney Parkinson, from George William Anderson, ANew, Authentic and Complete Collection of Voyages Around the World, London, 1784-86 Bottom Michel Tuftery Vaka faua tulu (Family boat no. 3) 1993 Carving with symthetic polymer paint on rimu (native timber) Collection: Queensland Art Gallery 56 I cu RAT o RI AL E ss A vs: PA c I FI c APacific Story Screw the Rim: We Live in the Basin Margo Neale Scattered on a work table of the Hawkes Bay Polytechnic in the middle of the North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand was a bundle of invitations to a student exhibition which read: 'Screw the edge: We live on the corner'. It struck a chord. In our journey of selection for the Triennial, we became so engrossed in the landscape, the people and the art scene through a series of encounters and exposures, that the card could just as easily have read: Screw the rim: We live in the basin. The artistic pulse in Aotearoa/New Zealand was racing. Over the past decade, artists had become increasingly visible, vocal and even volatile in many areas of the arts, declaring a position in the global village which could no longer be ignored. 1 All art made in Aotearoa/New Zealand can be seen as Pacific art-as South Pacific art. When exhibitions of art are organised, a certain cultural diplomacy operates to privilege the Indigenous 'other' (500,000 New Zealanders are of Maori descent) or the Pacific Island 'other' (153,000); a contrast to their usual inclusion in the contem– porary Pakeha (non-indigenous) mainstream. The challenge was to choose from this land of many Pacific nations (Tokelau, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga), five artists who would represent the changing face of New Zealand/ Polynesia. More of the population from these nations lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand than in the Islands. Afreewheeling journey After a kick-start from co-curator Jonathan Mane– Wheoki in Christchurch (on the South Island of New Zealand), I joined the third member of the team, Jim Vivieaere, in Wellington on the North Island.We rented a car and embarked on a two-week journey which crisscrossed the Island, putting us in contact with some sixty artists, thirteen public galleries, twelve dealer galleries, five community polytechnics, three collectives and sixteen artist studios. It was a freewheeling approach and one of immersion in which we wanted to get a 'birds-eye view', as well as probing the guts of the place and feeling the throb, as it were. We avoided the heavy schedule approach and instead adopted a 'drop in on people while in the neighbourhood' process. Camping at people's places, motels and hotels, attending community meetings and family dinners, visiting communes and even attending a national tattoo convention were vital to our curatorial process. Because of my unfamiliarity with the region, I became the innocent eye: the lens through which Jim's familiarity could be filtered, providing a refracted second vision. We truly believed that the nature and quality of the journey was paramount in establishing a cultural base for the selection. A showcase of individuals alone would not penetrate the complexities of South Pacific art, nor would a selection of the predictable 'big name' artists present the depth. As Indigenous curators we were positioned to go with the flow; to let the artists and their works play on us in an effort to avoid the imposition of a Eurocentric master narrative. 2 We were charged with the responsibility of giving the Pacific a stronger presence in this year's Triennial (in collaboration with the selectors for Papua New Guinea/Melanesia). Water claims and beacons We did take with us on this journey, some beacons to guide us. The curators from Aotearoa/New Zealand, Torres Strait Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia had identified some commonalities four months earlier at the international forum in Brisbane, July 1995. These commonalities, or kinship ties as we preferred to call them, included stories of migration, the need for ritual, the role of Elders and performers, and modes of community expression through collectives and collaboration. Water, as a metaphor for linking all Pacific peoples, was to be used as an on-site connection between all works rather than as a theme which would control and therefore exclude. A water claim was filed which took in the Brisbane River and the Gallery, including the Watermall and the exterior waterpools.The claim remained uncontested at the final selections in December 1995. In search of the Pacific narrative As we moved with the land, we were getting what could be described as an aerial survey of the cultural landscape into which artists were embedded like features of the landscape. It was our job to look not only at the pinnacles-the high– profile artists, but further; down into the troughs, overturning rocks and scratching away the surface to expose the substratum. It was in the substratum that we were going to find the roots of the future– the first stirrings of what is to come and not the last gasp of what has been.We wanted to avoid the sterility of political correctness as the controlling idea and the cameo appearance of individuals, that is, one of everything-one girl, one boy, one of each race and age bracket and so on. 3 Because the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial is one part of a three-part exhibition, we felt no obligation to cover everything in one showing, although it may appear that way. To do so was to risk serving up a homogenised gruel of disputable nourishment. We wanted the selected artists to project a strong message about the Pacific which takes into account Aotearoa/New Zealand's immigrant representatives,