APT7 Exhibition Report

Zimi Meka, Chief Executive Officer, Ausenco (back row, second from left), and Frank Kramer, Chief Executive Officer, Kramer Ausenco (back row, middle), sponsors of the PNG Project, with Uncle Des Sandy (back row, second from right) exhibiting artists from the Sepik region during APT7 opening celebrations, GOMA, December 2012 opposite PNG artists performing during the opening weekend APT7 featured new work by over 50 artists living in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Co‑curated by architect Martin Fowler and Ruth McDougall, Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA, this project was the most significant presentation of works from PNG to date and was made possible with the generous support of Kramer Ausenco. Featuring 15 works, including visually dynamic masks and two large‑scale, specially‑commissioned spirit house installations, this display focused on the vast diversity of art and culture found in PNG today. Despite great differences between their cultures, a shared subject for many PNG artists is their relationship to place — the importance of natural complex cosmologies and histories of change. Another recurrent subject is the articulation of clan affiliations through environmental totems. The capacity for change was demonstrated through the incorporation of new ideas and materials, perhaps most visible in the spectacular structures created by artists from the East Sepik River region. All these works, with their powerful exploration of pattern and colour, carry narratives about the continuing vitality of PNG cultures, and the importance of their visual expressions in communicating their heritages to new generations and the outside world. papua New guiNea eXHiBitioN 21