The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

With vines tied to his ankles, a land diver launches himself from the tower at the Lonorore land diving site, Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, 2009 (detail) / Photograph: Tim Clayton Home Reef is an island south-west of Vava’u, Tonga, which only appears when volcanic activity thrusts through the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It has risen sporadically — in 1852, 1857, 1984 and, most recently, in 2006 — with its last eruption producing pumice rafts that floated all the way to Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia and Papua New Guinea. 1 Scattered over half the surface area of the globe’s oceans, Pacific nations have always existed in an environment of changing configurations of tectonic plates and landmasses. These changes propel volcanoes, create seismic activity, influence ocean circulation and affect climates, both local and global. The resulting flux — and sometimes extreme changes to natural conditions — has made this region particularly responsive to change, to migration flows and to ideas of impermanence, which are physically manifested in the propensity to create vertical and ephemeral structures. This discussion frames the Pacific selection for ‘The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT7). The three-year cycle of the APT allows different curatorial approaches to be highlighted each time. This also means that ideas can be built upon or experimented with across a number of years. Recent Triennials have traced parallel practices in a number of different Pacific countries, in projects such as the Pacific Textiles Project (APT5, 2006) and Pacific Reggae: Roots Beyond the Reef (APT6, 2009). These expressions create new idioms borrowing from both the vernacular and the global, broadening perspectives and definitions and allowing for other ways of seeing and engaging with the present. Thinking through an overarching thematic like the treatment and use of space, with a particular focus on ephemeral structures in the Pacific, has not yet been explored within the framework of an APT. This conversation has also been broadened further to include artists whose practices do not address Pacific indigenous culture. One of APT7’s key questions is: what are some of the ways in which Pacific people relate to space and how is space utilised and cared for, both spiritually and practically, in this part of the region? The architect and academic Albert Refiti recounts how when Queen Elizabeth II visited Samoa in 1977, people built elaborate temporary archways to mark the occasion of her visit. Decorated with flowers and symbols of Christianity, these structures also delineated a path for her to follow. Tongans still construct these striking gateways today, most recently for the late King George Tupou V’s birthday celebrations in 2011. 2 Hawaiians created majestic feather standards to signal the presence of royalty — up to three metres tall, their size and height indicated the importance of the dignitary. In Vanuatu, the vertical use of space is evocatively exemplified by the 30-metre-tall hand-built wooden constructions from which Pentecost Islanders jump as part of the gol ceremony. With vines attached to their ankles, the Ni-Vanuatu plunge from the top of these structures so their heads skim the earth in order to ensure a bountiful yam harvest. These beautiful, frail towers are also platforms for performances. Men sing, speak, invoke and perform spontaneous pantomimes before diving. Their courage is considered therapeutic, proves them to be valiant in character and also blesses the land. 3 The towers act as a conduit for this social and individual transformation, and are recreated annually although always a little differently. This risk-taking act has since been popularised as bungee jumping, first established commercially in another Pacific country, New Zealand. In Papua New Guinea, imposing, vertiginous masks continue to be made for single performances across diverse areas; a notable example is the three-metre barkcloth mask worn by the Baining people to partake in the different earthly and spiritual realms. A collection of performance objects from nine different cultural groups, as well as spirit houses created by Abelam and Kwoma artists, soar skyward for this Triennial. These works form counterpoints to the acrobatic feats involved in constructing the Asmat bisj poles from Papua. These poles — with their vertical distribution of space employed for maximum effect and spiritual engagement — are in conversation with the works of New Zealand-based artists Richard Maloy, Joanna Langford, Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Graham Fletcher. They also resonate aesthetically and conceptually with other works in APT7, including Shirley Macnamara’s reflection on Aboriginal dwellings in her poetic weaving of an upturned turpentine shrub, the finely crafted and floating Japanese temple by Takahiro VERTICAL EPHEMERALS AND PACIFIC STRUCTURES MAUD PAGE 38