The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Patachitra scrolls have parallels with the Living Newspapers that inspired Gabriella and Silvana Mangano and Rheim Alkadhi. The scrolls were carried from village to village as an early form of visual and performative communication. Kalighat paintings served a comparable purpose, capturing contemporary social and political events. Some of these vernacular and indigenous practices also saw early examples of performance as an integral part of the art object: the scrolls were always accompanied by song and carefully unrolled, frame by frame, with the singer pointing to themes of interest; as were Kaavad shrines with their folding wooden panels; Gond paintings frequently illustrated songs performed by bards and Phad paintings were accompanied by song and dance. These diverse practices, from AsimWaqif’s rambling timber installation, to Kalam Patua’s delicate autobiographical watercolours, have in common a shared commitment to experimentation and a dedication to their local milieu. The contrast between industrialised and handcrafted is important, with many artists drawing on a range of traditions and materials, from the local to the contemporary. Their practices renegotiate the boundaries and distinctions between innovation and communal inheritance, handmade and manufactured, belief and observation, sacred and profane. Throughout APT8, there are a few key works by senior artists that act as anchors to broader curatorial themes — including David Medalla’s sensual and abstract Cloud Canyons No.25 1963/2015, Len Lye’s kinetic explorations of movement and light in Blade 1959 (2015 reconstruction) and Tusalava 1929, and Yasumasa Morimura’s subtle subversions of national, cultural and sexual identity through his own body in White Darkness 1994, printed 2008. Sonabai too may be considered a shadowy inclusion among these important figures, placing her work — and the work of indigenous, rural, and vernacular artists — at the roots of a history of contemporary art. Sonabai’s house, Puhputra, Chhattisgarh / Photograph: Carol Mitchell / © The photographer