The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Lee Ufan, Nam June Paik and Ralph Hotere), exhibited their work in depth, and placed generations of younger artists in relation to the elders’ practices. The project has always looked to push the parameters of what is considered ‘art’, drawing on the rich and contested theoretical arguments developed in Australia. These extend from the 1970s in relation to Australian Indigenous practices, through to 1980s postmodernist ideas of questioning the established canon 7 , to current thinking about globalisation. Over the last 20 years, the APT has exhibited works by more than 500 artists from over 30 countries and has been visited by over 1.8 million people, and its geographical focus has expanded substantially. In 1993, the APT showed the work of artists from South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea) and the South Pacific (New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia). It has extended its reach to include South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, while continuing to research and present artists from South-East Asia, East Asia, Australia and diasporas around the world. Thus, although the APT is discussed and included among the many global biennial art projects — and has an important role to play in this context — it is also an exhibition formed from a distinctly unique geopolitical context. Increasingly, a number of curators, art historians and academics around the world are describing contemporary art in global terms. We now understand and accept that contemporary art is syncretic and cross-cultural, that canonical assumptions about art history are routinely questioned, and the stability of definitions about modernism’s trajectories are tested. At the close of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, contemporary Asian, Pacific and Australian artists have been significant participants in this field, often challenging accepted norms and changing its direction. Their experiences and specific histories have made for a productive contribution and involvement in the art of today, engaging in a complex dialogue that brings issues about what it means to be international, transnational and local to the forefront. In the early 1990s these ideas were less shaped: they required more time to develop articulated forms, yet for all of us working in the field we recognised this necessary agency. As Indian cultural theorist and curator Nancy Adajania puts it: . . . globalism allows me to stand at an enabling, rather than alienating distance from the logic of regional and national narratives, and to see how the destinies of particular societies and countries are not the expression of any primordial civilisational spirit that supposedly animates them. Indeed the adoption of a globalist position allows me to see that these destinies are shaped through the mediation of intricate webs of exchange, conflict, diffusion and mutuality, which may sometimes extend across oceans and continents, and which sometimes throw up national aggregations or regional blocs. 8 When we consider some of the major acquisitions and commissions made by the Gallery over this 20-year period, the Collection clearly mirrors the trajectories of each APT. The vision, ambition and courage of artists are evidenced in their works in the APT, and those that have been commissioned and collected by the Gallery speak of a parallel spirit, bringing to the institution a legacy that has established it as a leader in this area of work. The resulting collection is, as a consequence, one of the great collections of contemporary art. A decade into the twenty-first century there is lively speculation about the role of the museum in the community and how institutions structure collection building. What do institutions bring to people and how do their collections relate to people’s lives? The experience of this Gallery, which is identified with the APT and its peerless Asian and Pacific collections, is one in which contemporary art has been embraced by its audiences, who have an expanding curiosity and interest in discovering the world of our time through art. One measure of its success is that this project, developed from its base in Australia, has not only been accepted, it is eagerly anticipated. What’s more, it is made more coherent because of where we stand 20 years on. Iatmul people in performance, Kaminabit, East Sepik, July 2011 / Photograph: Michael O’Sullivan 30