The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

KIRI DALENA The Philippines b.1975 Erased slogans 2015 InkjetprintonPhotoRagBaryta 100percent cottonfibre-basedglosspaper,ed. 1/3 /88.9x 124.7cm /Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection locations. In washes of colour, it delivers a poetic rather than linear narrative of interactions between humans and industry, and between leisure and conflict. Like his witty physical enactments, the portrayal of a city square awash with a glowing hue exposes how we navigate public spaces and the way they serve as stages for collective experience in all its irony and peculiarity. From Guangzhou, the video cuts to the streets of Bangkok, capturing the cumbersome reality of demonstrators resting, sleeping and waiting around during an Occupy protest in early 2014 — the mundane, individual experiences of a globally broadcast protest (with much more significant political outcomes than its precursor ‘Occupy Wall Street’). The work slowly gathers pace as protesters are seen wearing gas masks and raincoats, and, like the Guangzhou residents drenched in synthetic colour, they transmit a post-apocalyptic, futuristic atmosphere. SUBVERSION AND THE BODY POLITIC Demonstrations and protests on enormous scales have transformed nations across Asia recently, from the Arab Spring revolutions beginning in 2010 that toppled decade- long regimes; the Thai political crisis of 2013–14, resulting in a military coup with no foreseeable end; the Occupy Central and Umbrella movements lasting several months in central Hong Kong in 2014; and the Sunflower Movement of the same year in Taiwan that resulted in protesters occupying the parliamentary chamber. From subtle gestures or mass gatherings, protests present robust examples of communal thought, and artists are enabled to respond and participate in subversions of authority in unique ways by constructing new meaning in objects and images. Kiri Dalena’s images of picketers armed with placards are a poetic rendering of political history in the Philippines. Her ongoing series ‘Erased slogans’ re-presents archival newspaper photographs, with slogans of protests prior to the imposition of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 removed. Devoid of messages, 150—151 THE SOCIAL MEDIUM