The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

30 The general term ‘space’ replaced the word gallery (alternate spaces followed after experimental galleries and laboratories) and was used precisely because it was supposed to avoid the connotations of an institutional or commercial environment, where a hierarchical, formal arrangement might determine audience behaviour in pre-set ways. ‘Space’ usefully removed the immediate connotations of commodity. If artists already had any ‘space’ it was because they had studios. And the connotations of studio activity had long passed from associations of the model and the arranged tableau to a less structured, process-oriented concept of the creative site. The new spaces in the early seventies were thus much less the laboratories of technological or participatory experiment than a self-consciously chaotic milieu (of which Warhol’s space of the Factory is a precursor), where gesture and incident could be prominent and pre-eminent. 5 I include this quote by way of arguing that, indirectly, the APT has had a similar influence on the art museum in which it takes place. The nature of art-making across the region is incredibly diverse and includes places with highly developed art infrastructures, as well as others with very limited foundations. Over the last two decades, the APT has shown the work of over 300 artists. In this context, it has introduced the work of little-known artists to Australia while also profiling artists with major international reputations, whose work is generally known through art publications rather than exhibitions staged in Brisbane. While APT6 presents work from places not previously included, the exhibition is built around artists from East Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, Australia, the Pacific, as well as the diaspora, as it has from its inception. Thematic ideas — such as the significance of collaborative practice and the perspectives offered in the inclusion of the two major film programs, Promised Lands and The Cypress and the Crow: 50 Years of Iranian Animation — are integral to the APT, and are discussed in the other overview essays in this Simeon Simix Vanuatu b.1981 Paw paw/coconut (from ‘Bebellic’ portfolio) 2007 Screenprint on magnani paper ed. 1/45 / 76 x 56cm / Purchased 2008. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Vandy Rattana Cambodia b.1980 Fire of the year 5 2008 Digital print / 105.5 x 63.5cm / Image courtesy: The artist