The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

In Nomads 2014, Baatarzorig Batjargal draws on the techniques of Mongol zurag painting to address the broader history of Mongolia’s development over the past century. Contemporary Mongol zurag painting revives an early twentieth-century style that developed during the Mongolian independence movement to express the ideals of secular nationalism. Since the 1990s, Mongol zurag has re-emerged and been taken up by a new generation of practitioners who have found within it the means to address the contradictions of their own lives at a time of unprecedented urbanisation. Baatarzorig’s paintings are particularly concerned with the loss of traditional heritage through a succession of regimes, from the bloody purges and ascetic culture of Soviet-style communism to the rising inequalities and empty consumerism of global capitalism. Nomads allegorises Mongolia’s march through the ages, depicting the journey of an immense cast of characters that includes gods and holy men, artists and intellectuals, warriors and noblemen, politicians and oligarchs, sumo wrestlers and robots. RICHARD BELL Kamilaroi/Jiman/Kooma people Born 1953, Charleville, Australia Lives and works in Brisbane, Australia Richard Bell creates satirical works that raise issues regarding stereotypical ideas of Aboriginal people, culture and art, and the forces that drive the production of Aboriginal art today. Bell was a political activist in the 1980s (and continues to be active in this regard) before becoming known for his appropriation paintings, videos and installations. Larry 2015 was filmed in Venice, Italy, the site of one of the biggest and oldest biennales in the world. It sees Bell adopting the persona of a wealthy Aboriginal gallerist and businessman to engage viewers with uncomfortable realities. Larry highlights the ways in which Aboriginal art has become a highly desirable and marketable commodity, while also functioning as satirical projection of the generalisations made about Indigenous peoples in Australia. Bell’s work is deliberately provocative, aiming to create discussion and reflection as an ongoing process of activism. BOUILLONGROUP Established 2008, Tbilisi, Georgia TEIMURAZ KARTLELISHVILI Born 1982, Tbilisi, Georgia EKATERINE KETSBAIA Born 1980, Sokhumi, Georgia VLADIMER KHARTISHVILI Born 1985, Vladikavkaz, Russia ZURAB KIKVADZE Born 1985, Tbilisi, Georgia KONSTANTINE KITIASHVILI Born 1985, Tbilisi, Georgia NATALIA VATSADZE Born 1978, Tbilisi, Georgia Live and work in Tbilisi, Georgia Bouillon Group take their name from a broth made from multiple ingredients, reflecting their determination to blur the boundaries between art, politics and daily life. In their humorous Religious aerobics 2010–13 they combine devotional movements into a repetitive exercise routine and invite viewers to take part. Located between Western Asia and Eastern Europe, Georgia is a complex mix of cultures and histories, with influences from Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Combining devotional movements imbued with deep significance into the commercialised exercise of aerobics forms a light-hearted critique of the increasing fundamentalism found in Georgia in the post-Soviet era. CHEN CHING-YUAN Born 1984, Tainan, Taiwan Lives and works in Taipei Chen Ching-Yuan is particularly interested in the weight of history and social conventions on the individual, and he explores this theme in his haunting, surrealistic paintings, installations, video and drawing. In March and April of 2014, Chen was involved in the Sunflower Movement, a sustained protest in which a group of students occupied the Taiwanese parliament. Chen was deeply influenced by the events, and his recent work Unravel, comprising small paintings and objects, directly reflects the emotional impact of this experience. It explores the difference between the private space of intimate dialogue and more public forms of communication, such as state politics and the media, especially during moments of confrontation. Chen chose not to represent the events directly in these paintings, but to use fragmented, dreamlike images metaphorically invoking desires and traumatic memory. SHARON CHIN Born 1980, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Lives and works in Port Dickson, Malaysia Sharon Chin works across a variety of media to address environmental and political issues in Malaysia. For Weeds/Rumpai 2010– 15, Chin collected the political party flags that hung on trees, lamp posts and street signs in her home of Port Dickson prior to a national election, and painted over them with images of weeds from her own garden. Chin is interested in the way in which weeds survive and thrive in adverse conditions, and contrasts them as a symbol of the resolute stubbornness of everyday existence against the flag’s association with political power. The weeds have a natural beauty, as well as a sense of the uncontrollable and inevitable that allows her to use them as a powerful metaphor for dissent. She comments: ‘we are the weeds . . . we are in the buildings, the cracks, the fields, the roadsides . . . we are many and not alone’. CHOI JEONGHWA Born 1961, Seoul, South Korea Lives and works in Seoul Choi Jeong Hwa is known for his inflatable sculptures and large-scale, riotously coloured installations of everyday objects. For APT8, the beaded strands of his Cosmos 2015 are suspended above his mandala project commissioned by QAGOMA’s Children’s Art Centre. The Mandala of Flowers 2015 involves a high level of audience participation and interaction, inviting children to create their own mandalas from colourful plastic bottle lids. The form of the work contradicts the content, since plastic is often regarded as a waste-product, inorganic, non bio- degradable, cheaply made and mass- produced — unlike the mandalas which