The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

62 Collaborative works register art’s grounding in interactions between people, with all the negotiations and decisions that this entails. They might make us aware of artistic divisions of labour, in which particular skills or activities are delegated amongst individuals; or of the constructed nature of a form or style that is, by definition, not the outcome of a single ‘hand’. In the case of temporary projects, such as Tsai’s and the Aquilizans’, the primary focus is not the final art work, but rather the act of making, with the Gallery itself becoming the studio. This latter form of practice — often loosely described as relational or participatory art — has become increasingly prevalent since the 1990s, and has been a strong presence in past APTs. These include works such as Surasi Kusolwong’s Ruen pae (During the moments of the day) 1999–2000, featuring a structure based on a Thai floating house in which the audience was invited to rest and contemplate, and Lee Mingwei’s Writing the unspoken 1999, a series of three sculptural booths in which visitors could write personal letters. The number of collaborative works in APT6 is a reflection of its importance to contemporary art-making, not only in the Asia Pacific region, but internationally. Collaboration did not begin as a prescribed theme for the exhibition, but is rather an element that appeared again and again when looking at how artists are working today. Wit Pimkanchanapong, for example, often works across the disciplines of art, design and architecture, and regularly collaborates with Jiro Endo, Pitupong Chaowakul, and others as Soi Project. The work Fruits 2007–09, featured in APT6, is an interactive project that invites the audience to construct paper fruit out of preprinted templates. The task of folding the paper and joining the tabs is likened by Pimkanchanapong to the process of communication, with the paper models contributing to a fruit stall-style installation or kept for the contribution of a donation equalling the real fruit’s market price. Soi Project enables Pimkanchanapong to develop the kinds of experimental, cross-disciplinary works that he would not be able to realise alone; the word soi (‘small street’ in Thai) evokes connections made between people in an urban environment. For Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, the decision to work collaboratively came out of shared interests and backgrounds, and developed organically as their process of emailing concepts back and forth during art school began to coalesce as concrete projects. 5 Under the moniker Thukral and Tagra, as well as the label Bosedk Designs, they have been working across the areas of art and design since 2000. Their works are developed digitally before being realised as paintings, sculptures and installations, enabling a fluid and responsive circulation of images and ideas. Their approach reflects a more recent form of collective work, which, rather than rejecting the promotion of artistic identity, heartily embraces it, creating their own ‘brand’. The power of the market to absorb even some of the most resistant activities, and the shifts in identity formation that technology has brought, has led to collaborative strategies that work with, rather than against, consumer and media culture. Recent artist groups, according to critic Pamela M Lee: . . . are as likely to shadow the logic of the corporation as that of the co-op, as predisposed to emulate the thinktank as the factory floor . . . the appearance of these new collectives . . . announces a marked shift from the ways collectives have been historically imagined relative to their ideological filiations. 6 Yoshitomo Nara and graf’s collaborations are also presented under a ‘brand’ name, YNG, and have been produced in gallery spaces all over the world. Sometimes working with local people to construct them, each installation features Nara’s works within a structure, or ‘hut’, created by graf, which reflects the architecture of its location, be it Yogyakarta, Seoul, Malaga or Brisbane. The ‘huts’ erect a kind of barrier between the works and the museum’s white walls, enabling Nara Wit Pimkanchanapong Thailand b.1976 Fruits 2007 Installation view, Sharjah Biennale 2007 / Image courtesy: The artist Thukral and Tagra Jiten Thukral India b.1976 Sumir Tagra India b.1979 Effugio (escape) 2008 Installation view, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo / Image courtesy: The artists and Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi