The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

to those that recognise different art histories’, and Patrick Flores recently articulated it as ‘the way for the Triennial to confront the predicament of contemporary art and the worlds contemporaneous with it, the myriad temporalities it inhabits’. 3 Sonabai’s selection was made in consultation with regional curators, in this case Jyotindra Jain, who had just included her in his exhibition ‘Other Masters’ (1998). 4 Sonabai was one of a generation of artists from different traditions and regions in India whose practices were being transformed by an increased curatorial and government interest, as well as the introduction of new materials. Although her medium did not change as other artists converted to new painting and drawing materials, Sonabai’s life did, which in turn changed her community. She recounts her feelings of bewilderment when local researchers were sent from the recently established Bharat Bhavan museum to take a panel away from her house to exhibit in the museum. She was also asked to teach a number of government workshops to young artists, creating a life-changing legacy to her community which is now known for its Rajwar relief work in Sarguja style. Sonabai’s house became a remote and much-admired museum after her death, and the form she invented, drawn entirely from her immediate surroundings, has become a communal, collective one. Similar events occurred in other communities. Indigenous artists Jivya Soma Mashe and Jangarh Singh Shyam, from the Warli and Gond peoples, were ‘discovered’ through their wall paintings and taken to nearby Bhopal and asked to create their works on paper. Both artists have become known through their participation in the 1989 exhibition ‘Magiciens de la terre’ in France. 5 Although this exhibition has been both celebrated and highly criticised, it was the first time that art from indigenous communities in India had been shown in a large, international museum. 6 Both artists subsequently forged visible, successful Jivya Soma Mashe at work, November 2009 / Photograph: Romain Mounier- Poulet / Licensed Wikimedia Commons Artist Jangarh Singh Shyam in front of his work in ‘Magiciens de la terre’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1989 / Photograph: Deidi von Schaewen / © The photographer