The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

This choice to use common, readily available, cheap materials is also apparent in Choi Jeong Hwa’s suspended sculpture Cosmos 2015 and The Mandala of Flowers project, commissioned by QAGOMA’s Children’s Art Centre. The Mandala of Flowers invites children to create their own compositions from colourful plastic bottle lids, which form a giant, sprawling, ground-based mandala. The form of the work contradicts the content, since plastic is often regarded as a waste-product — inorganic, non-biodegradable, cheaply made and mass-produced — unlike mandalas, which are highly labour-intensive, transient, sacred, and return immediately to the earth. Hanging above Mandala are the blinking lights and riotous hues of Cosmos , which loops through the exhibition space in a tangle of beaded plastic strands like an exploded chandelier. Choi’s choice of plastics links his work to the colourful street stalls and flea markets of Seoul and transforms the prosaic material into ‘jewels’ and ‘flowers’. Instead of vernacular material being transformed into art, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian transform artworks into everyday environments, challenging conventional modes of display. The three artists have been practising together since 2009 in Dubai, and form a loose collective. Such is the potency of their studio space and their routine of living together, they have sometimes described it as a fourth ‘collaborator’ in their group. In “All The Rivers Run Into The Sea. Over.”/ “Copy. Yet, The Sea Is Not Full. Over.” 2015 they recreate their studio, using their own and other artists’ works, found objects and bric-a- brac randomly displayed in an over-the-top, domesticised installation that occupies and consumes the space of the gallery. Every inch of the room is covered, including walls and floors, with no concern for hierarchy and preciousness. Their medley of influences ranges from satirical folk theatre, illuminated manuscripts, miniature painting and Persian poetry to modernist art and pop culture. Persian street- theatre or Ta’ziyeh is a particularly important influence on MIN THEIN SUNG Myanmar b.1978 They and Another Realm 2009–10 Installation view, ‘Play: Art fromMyanmar Today’, Osage Contemporary Art Gallery, Singapore / Image courtesy: The artist Lawrence English recording at Mamori, Brazil, 2008, for the multichannel installation A Sombre Verde / Photograph: Marc Behrens / Image courtesy: The artist