The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

SHIGEYUKI (YUKI) KIHARA Born 1975, Apia, Samoa Lives and works in Apia, Samoa; Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand; and Sydney, Australia Shigeyuki Kihara’s work examines gender, history and representation in contemporary Pacific societies. Her cinematic series of photographs ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’ 2013 find the artist adopting the persona of a fictional nineteenth-century Samoan woman, posed in historic and iconic sites in Samoa following the tragic Tsunami Galu Afi (2009) and Cyclone Evan (2012). They highlight the historical and cultural occupation of this landscape and the challenges faced by the isolated island nation as it struggles to assert an independent presence in the world. Kihara’s ongoing concern with performance is also apparent in her mesmerising video Siva in Motion 2012, in which the artist re-enacts the tsunami through Taualuga — carefully choreographed and eloquent movements of the hands to narrate a story or event. PAPHONSAK LA-OR Born 1981, Nonthaburi, Thailand Lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand Paphonsak La-or’s sharply realistic drawings, paintings and conceptual works offer acute critiques of Thai politics and history. His recent series ‘Silent No More’ 2014–15 features empty landscapes around Fukushima and Futaba in Japan, areas abandoned following the 2011 nuclear disasters. La-or viewed the terrain obsessively through Google Maps and discovered a connection between his fascination with these quiet, uninhabitable landscapes and his frustration with the current political situation in Thailand. At the time, Thailand was experiencing a period of political instability, resulting in the military coup of May 2014. Finding similarity in the beautiful, lush landscapes of Japan and around his hometown of Chiang Mai, La-or emphasises the contradictions between the apparently serene and peaceful scenes and the turbulent situations they represent. By placing texts rendered in dust below the images he further undermines their idyllic tranquillity. LEANG SECKON Born circa 1970, Pier Reang, Cambodia Lives and works in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Leang Seckon is one of the few remaining artists in Cambodia who directly experienced the Khmer Rouge period. His strongly autobiographical practice includes painting, collage and video work and reflects on his experiences of the tumultuous and violent history of modern Cambodia. Leang was born at the onset of the American bombings of Indochina and grew up during the rise of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Almost a generation of artists was wiped out during this period, leaving a visible gap and palpable legacy in the country’s contemporary art. Leang’s dense paintings are characterised by lush tapestry-like surfaces, filled with collage elements, embroidery and illustrations that combine references to myth, popular culture and history. Paintings such as Hell of Tuol Sleng 2014 depict a high school that became a notorious prison and death camp, while Indochina 2014 reflects on his country’s spiritual and colonial past. LIUDING Born 1976, Changzhou, China Lives and works in Beijing, China Liu Ding pursues a research-based practice that manifests in a range of media, from painting to theatre production, as well as curatorial and theoretical work. His most recent work involves appropriating the aesthetics and creative system of Chinese socialist realism, particularly in painting, to reappraise its legacy in art and visual culture. Through contrasts and comparisons between past and present archetypes, Liu examines shifting ideas of the model citizen, the role of artists and intellectuals in society, and conditions of cultural production and historical knowledge. Typified by a large, politically loaded rendering of the year 1989 in the corner of a computer desktop window, Liu’s paintings address emergent forms and conventions of seeing, showing and experiencing enabled by new technologies, with significant implications for public discourse in China and elsewhere. LEN LYE 1901–80, New Plymouth, Aotearoa New Zealand Lived in London, UK, and New York, USA Len Lye is a senior figure in the history of international kinetic art and experimental film. Exploring movement and the ways in which it can generate a bodily response in the viewer, Lye was interested in overturning classical hierarchies that privilege mind over body. His first experimental film Tusalava 1929 depicts the symbiotic development and communion of two cellular forms, and was inspired by motifs from Indigenous Australian art. Tusalava is a Samoan word that has parallels with Lye’s exploration of movement and light, describing a process of ‘everything going full circle’. The film took two years to complete, with each frame painted and individually shot. APT8 features Tusalava , at times screened on the original 16mm and accompanied by a new, specially commissioned musical response. Lye’s sculpture Blade 1959–78 similarly explores concepts of movement, attraction and climax. JULIAMAGE’AUGRAY Mekeo people Born 1973, Mekeo Area, Central Province, Papua New Guinea Lives and works in Darwin, Australia Julia Mage’au Gray is a dancer, choreographer, tattooist, photographer and film-maker who is interested in exploring her Papuan and Mekeo heritage within an urban Australian context. Her performances frequently combine dance with evocative video narratives. Now based in Darwin, Gray co-founded the performance group Sunameke in 1997. Dress or adornment, including the marking of the body with tatu (tattoo), is often of particular significance in her performances and films. Best foot forward 2011 features Gray’s sister Yolanda walking along an Australian road dressed in a Mekeo skirt customarily worn for performance, which contrasts with her red high heels. Mage’au Gray also features in APT8’s Yumi Danis Melanesian performance project.