The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

YIL I think all opportunities for conversing about, looking at and sharing art are relevant: locally, nationally, regionally, globally and without consideration of these framings. Each tends to have specific agendas and conveniences. It seems to me to be rude to exclude local regionally framed efforts from privileged, mature art centres. Everyone works with the opportunities at hand, and prioritises what may be considered necessary for any particular time or occasion. As an artist I have been included in all these different kinds of framings, including ‘woman artist’, at various times. I also think it is important to talk to your household and your immediate neighbours before you address the whole street. Having said that, I hope the new National Gallery Singapore, with its regional focus, is wary of taking on an imperialist tone dictating to other countries in the region about their art. This is certainly something to be aware of —who speaks for who, and to whom, as you noted earlier I-Lann, is always a question that needs to be considered carefully, and one we must all take responsibility for, both as individuals and institutions. The frameworks we create need to be reflexive and continually under review. An ongoing project such as the APT, for example, has provided the opportunity for critique and shifts in thinking, as well as artistic developments, to be responded to over time. That said, do you think such frameworks and categories add to or diminish an understanding of where, and how, you are working? BC I think it is important to consider how we approach these categories. I launched a seminar platform two years ago titled ‘From a history of exhibitions towards a future of exhibition making’. This platform proposes to revisit the importance of the exhibition, addressing the situation beyond the artworks themselves; the exhibition is a key factor in relating art to its wider social context. The seminars, stretching across New Zealand, Singapore and China (the first was the ST Paul St Gallery 2013 Curatorial Symposium), look specifically at the history of exhibitions in China, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. They investigate the different trajectories in these countries of exhibition and museum development, as opposed to the former Western European context, which was closely related to the development of democratic society.