The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Kids’ APT7 is a curated exhibition comprising immersive installations, hands-on activities and multimedia projects developed in conjunction with ‘The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT7). Installed across the exhibition spaces at QAG and GOMA, as well as in the Children’s Art Centre, Kids’ APT7 enables children to have a participatory art experience and is an accessible way to enjoy the exhibition in its entirety. Since the inception of Kids’ APT in 1999, more than 70 artists have been commissioned to create contemporary art works and workshops especially for children and families. This innovative series is renowned for inspiring the Gallery’s younger visitors to engage with the art, culture and life of the Asia Pacific region. In 2012, we continue to encourage participation and collaboration — a hallmark of contemporary art — with young audiences, making art especially relevant to them. Over the last 12 years, Kids’ APT has explored the critical role that children can play through various forms of collaboration: more than 400 000 children have shared their creative energy, thoughts, imaginings and observations and helped to fulfil and shape so many art works during this time. The 13 projects that comprise Kids’ APT7 explore a range of contemporary ideas, that resonate with the themes of the exhibition. Indonesian artist Uji Handoko Eko Saputro (aka Hahan) has created the Kids’ APT7 mascot, a hermit crab named Pong Pongan. The hermit crab, famous for occupying the abandoned shells of other sea creatures, playfully references one of APT7’s themes — ephemeral structures. Because the crab is commonly found across the tropical coastal areas of the Asia Pacific region, Pong Pongan also symbolically unites many of the countries represented in the exhibition. Complementing the impressive structures created for APT7 by the Papua New Guinean artist collective Kwoma Arts, their Kids’ APT7 installation Kwaia koromb is based on a communal place where elders teach children about art, cultural stories and painting. Located in GOMA, Kwaia koromb contains a stunning display of carvings of well-known Queensland icons, from CityCats and water dragons, to everyday household items inspired by the artists’ recent visit to Brisbane. Kwoma Arts invites children to draw objects, eliciting creative interaction between artists and audiences while fostering cultural exchange between two countries. Yellow or Blue? is an interactive installation that references New Zealand artist Richard Maloy’s interest in relocating the activity of the art studio into the more public realm of the art gallery. Constructed from cardboard — a rudimentary material widely used for temporary packaging and storage — the title describes the physical space, which is half clad in bright yellow and half in blue. It invites children to build either a blue or yellow outfit for themselves from cardboard. Decision-making and active participation are integral as its inhabitants either blend or contrast with the yellow and blue interior, creating an evolving and dynamic art work over the course of the exhibition. 1 Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki’s installation recalls the experience of exploring outer space, and singling out a solitary star or constellation. In Out of disorder , a telescope is trained on a small, delicate sculpture, intentionally positioned in an unlikely location. It invites attentive visitors, who peer through a lens to sight a miniature landscape of local landmarks constructed from dust and surface sweepings, to ‘rediscover’ life on earth. By distorting space and scale to manipulate perception, the installation provides a rich participatory experience that focuses on ways of looking, poetically entwining the sculptures’ frailty with chance encounters throughout the Gallery’s vast spaces. Many artists have an increasing interest in audience participation, and this continues to inform art museum practice, providing some of the impetus behind programming for young audiences. By encouraging active engagement with contemporary art, Kids’ APT7 contributes to its understanding, affirming that artists’ ideas are an authentic means through which children can learn about art and its relevance to the lives of people across the Asia Pacific region. KIDS’ APT7 AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION KATE RYAN UJI HANDOKO EKO SAPUTRO (aka HAHAN) Indonesia b.1983 Pong Pongan (Kids’ APT7 mascot) 2012 PAGE 266 ROSLISHAM ISMAIL (aka ISE) Malaysia b.1972 The Langkasuka Cookbook (process images) 2012 Commissioned for APT7 / Images courtesy: The artist / Photographs: Magnus Caleb PAGE 267 Children’s workshop, Sira pisang ( Glazed banana ) 2012 Photographs: Mark Sherwood 268