The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

233 Ma Yong Chol b.1977 North Korea (DPRK) O Sung Gyu b.1969 North Korea (DPRK) Pak Guang IL b.1973 North Korea (DPRK) Rim Ho Chol b.1954 North Korea (DPRK) Ryu Guon Chol b.1975 North Korea (DPRK) The Mansudae Art Studio is an official artist studio ( changjaksa ) in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which employs over 1000 artists in the disciplines of painting, drawing, embroidery and mosaic. Artistic themes vary, and may be revolutionary, social, political and historical in content, or purely aesthetic, and are expressed in media such as sculpture, poster art, ceramics and painting. Installed in streets, schools, cinemas and official buildings, they function as a form of public art, and are created with virtuosic technical skill by groups of artists, reflecting the state’s collective ethos. Nicholas Bonner is a British-born filmmaker and landscape architect based in Beijing. He first visited North Korea (DPRK) in 1992, and soon after established Koryo Tours (with Josh Green), to organise trips to North Korea (DPRK) and promote cultural exchange. Bonner and director Daniel Gordon’s award-winning documentary films include The Game of their Lives 2002, which traces the North Korean soccer team that qualified for the 1966 World Cup quarter finals; A State of Mind 2004, which follows the daily lives of gymnasts training for the Mass Games in Pyongyang; and Crossing the Line 2008, which looks at American military defectors. Rudi Mantofani b.1973 Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia Lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia Rudi Mantofani is a sculptor and painter whose work takes ordinary objects and landscapes and transforms them into strange or absurd ‘visual parables’. In 1993, Mantofani helped form the Jendela Art Group, a collective of five west Sumatran artists who studied together at the Indonesia Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta and continue to exhibit together today. With a focus on the mundane and everyday, rather than the largely figurative and stridently political works that dominated Indonesian art in the 1990s, Mantofani and the Jendela artists avoid ideological positions, preferring a more ambivalent and metaphorical approach to art and politics. Exhibitions (solo): CP Artspace, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2006. Exhibitions (group): Jakarta Biennale, 2009; ‘Jendela: A Play of the Ordinary’, NUS Museum, Singapore, 2009; CP Open Biennale, National Gallery, Jakarta, 2003. Mataso Printmakers Patrik Abel b.unknown Vanuatu Eddy Baul b.1981 Vanuatu Stanley Firiam b.unknown Vanuatu Priscilla Thomas b.unknown Vanuatu Saires Kalo 1983–2009 Vanuatu David Kolin b.1983 Vanuatu Herveline Lité b.1980 Vanuatu Apia Najos b.unknown Vanuatu Sepa Seule b.1983 Vanuatu Simeon Simix b.1981 Vanuatu Live and work in Ohlen Village, Port Vila, Vanuatu The Mataso Printmakers originally came together in 2004 for a series of workshops developed by Carl Amneus, Jack Siviu Martau and Australian artist Newell Harry. Most of them come from the island of Mataso, which is situated 50 kilometres off the capital island of Efate. Due to economic circumstances, Mataso islanders have relocated to the satellite village of Ohlen in Port Vila, and have grown up exposed to outside influences like television, advertising, bars, reggae and soul music. The prints reflect the changes that have occurred since independence in 1980, while also drawing on stylistic forms derived from kastom lore and cultural practices such as sand-drawing. The Mekong Bùi Công Khánh , Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba , Sopheap Pich , Manit Sriwanichpoom , Svay Ken , Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu , Vandy Rattana Co-organised by Rich Streitmatter-Tran (Vietnam) and Russell Storer (Curator, Contemporary Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery) The Mekong River is one of the longest rivers in Asia, running from its source in China through the countries of Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Difficult to navigate, the Mekong has historically formed connections, as well as a border, between the peoples who live along its course. The Mekong platform within APT6 presents a vivid, multi-layered view of a complex and rapidly transforming region — a place that is becoming increasingly prominent culturally, politically and economically. Key themes include changing societies and cultures, such as tensions between tradition and modernity, and between Buddhist teachings and Western values. Rich Streitmatter-Tran is an artist based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, who works in performance, photography, video and installation, often in collaboration with others. He has written widely on the art of South-East Asia, and in 2005–06 he conducted the research project ‘Mediating the Mekong’ with the support of a Martell Contemporary Asian Art Research Grant and the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. Bùi Công Khánh b.1972 Da Nang, Vietnam Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Bùi Công Khánh’s paintings, performances, sculptures and ceramics address history and contemporary society in Vietnam. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in painting from the University of Fine Arts, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His paintings and drawings are often figurative and deeply personal, drawing on Buddhist and Taoist philosophy as well as addressing the influences of Western culture and consumerism on Vietnamese daily life. Exhibitions (group): ‘Intersection VietNam’, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore, 2009; ‘Time Ligaments’, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, 2009; ‘Who Do You Think We Are?’, Bui Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2009, ‘Reflow’, Java Cafe and Gallery, Phnom Penh, 2006; Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Japan, 2004. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba b.1968 Tokyo, Japan Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba often employs allegorical imagery to explore the influence of war, mass migration and social change on Vietnam and the world over the past few decades. He completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art, United States, in 1994, after receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1992. He moved to Ho Chi Minh City in the late 1990s, and has become renowned for a series of video works filmed underwater, conceived as memorials to people lost and displaced by war and conflict.