The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

AN INTRODUCTION Roberto Villanueva The Philippines 1947-95 Ego's grave 1993 Installation and performance Carved earth figure in outdoor pit, glazed terracotta, wood Pit 600 x 250 x 150cm The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery There is also evidence of the renewal of ideas, culturally specific or otherwise, and the refocusing of their relevance in contemporary life through creative processes, in the work of artists such as Michael Ming Hong Lin and Lisa Reihana. Both artists begin with architecture. For Reihana, the space of the marae (Maori meeting place) is a concept imbued with inherited cultural functions . In Digital Marae 2001 she sites a Maori cosmology in this highly structured space, and reviews it through digitally manipulated photographs and video. In Michael Ming Hong Lin's art, a program of transforming existing museum and exhibition spaces is achieved using highly patterned painted surfaces across vast expanses of wall or floor. Amplifying the vivid detail of traditional Taiwanese textiles, Lin uses exaggeration and repetition to achieve exuberant images saturated with resplendent colour. This practice is essentially about the process of artistic intervention, since the work is inextricably linked to existing configurations. Lin challenges hierarchies associated with art and craft, painting and design, and he directly engages with presumptions about the distance between idiomatic cultural forms and modern art museums and their practices. Lee U-fan South Korea/Japan b.1936 Relatum Iron, stone Dimensions variable Courtesy: Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo 15