The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

generation’ is the name given by the generation of men and women embroiled in the fight against the Panguna mine, such as Havini’s father Moses, to those born into the conflict. The young men and women of Havini’s own ‘blood generation’ lost not only immediate family members, cultural knowledge and the rights to their land, but their childhood and a sense of a future. For Havini, these photographs are not only portraits, but a tool for engaging friends and family in Bougainville in a creative process acknowledging the loss, struggles and accomplishments of a prior generation, as well as recognising the necessity to forge new narratives to secure the future. Viewing these images, we are compelled to follow the directed gaze of Russel, Sami, Veronica, Jedi and Mathew. With talk of reopening the mine resurfacing recently amidst planning for the referendum on Bougainville independence— promised by the Papua New Guinean government under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement — the blood generation directs its focus to their connection to land, their lifeblood, and the possibility of a new battle. 16 In Cambodia, controversial development projects — involving the forced removal of individuals from land inhabited for generations — are the principal focus of Khvay Samnang. Photographs in which the artist documents himself pouring fresh, white rubber sap over his naked body form part of the major new project entitled Rubber Man 2014. Shot in a series of locations in the remote north-east province of Ratanakiri, this series exposes the recent establishment of more than 300 000 hectares as foreign-owned rubber plantations, a footprint the government hopes to double in the next five years. 17 Passionate claims that building such plantations causes widespread deforestation, displaces local villagers, and destroys the hunting and gathering grounds of local indigenous communities, as well as devastating places of spiritual significance, underlie Rubber Man . Khvay’s pouring of sticky rubber sap all over his body resonates not only with a sense of erasing or whitewashing brown bodies, TALOI HAVINI (ARTIST) Autonomous Region of Bougainville/ Australia b.1981 Hakö people STUARTMILLER (PHOTOGRAPHER) Australia b.1983 Russel and the Panguna mine (from ‘Blood Generation’ series) 2009, printed 2014 Digital print on Canson Platine fibre rag paper 310gsm, ed. 2/10 / 84 x 120cm / Purchased 2014. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery