The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

stone, mortar and their wooden frame holding mosaic or majolica tiles, rather than sacred items. Nakamura also contextualises his recent practice through archival displays and engaging lectures. YUKULTJI NAPANGATI Pintupi people Born c.1970 Lake Mackay, Australia Lives and works in Kiwirrkura, Australia Yukultji Napangati paints in a linear and optical style characteristic of Pintupi artists, creating vibrant, shimmering aerial landscapes that poetically convey lived and learned experience of place. Now based in Kiwirrkura and a member of the Papunya Tula co-operative, she began painting in 1996 following in the footsteps of senior women Pintupi artists such as Makinti Napanangka, Inuywa Nampitjinpa and Walangkura Napanangka. Napangati’s recent paintings refer to seasons, significant sites, landscapes and ceremonies in the Western desert, using sinuous lines to describe sand hills and mushrooming shapes disrupting the dotted line composition to invoke the flowing water of the rain season. Napangati’s story is particularly fascinating. From her birth until 1984 she had no contact with white people, living with eight members of her immediate family (the so-called ‘lost tribe’) in an area of country to the west of Lake Mackay, on the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. NGE LAY Born 1979, Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar Lives and works in Yangon, Myanmar Nge Lay’s large-scale installation The sick classroom 2013 developed from years of research and regular visits to Thuye’dan village, a rural area ten hours north of Yangon. With her husband, artist Aung Ko, Nge Lay established the Thuye’dan Village Art Project in 2007. The project seeks to engage and share contemporary art with the villagers, and many of the most successful artists in Myanmar have participated. During her long stays in Thuye’dan Village, Nge Lay also worked closely with local craftspeople to create sculptures that have become the basis for her recent sculptural works. The sick classroom is one of the most ambitious examples of contemporary art fromMyanmar in recent years, and features life-size carved wooden sculptures based on the village school, including the classroom, the teacher and 26 first-year students. The installation emphasises the poor state of education in Myanmar and is a call for equal education in Myanmar for all children, both rural and urban. UUDAMTRANNGUYEN Born 1971, Kontum, Vietnam Lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam UuDam Tran Nguyen’s videos reflect on contemporary life in Vietnam and the way rural and urban spaces have been transformed by dramatic economic and industrial development. On returning to Ho Chi Minh City from living in Los Angeles, he was struck by these changes, and particularly by the prevalence of motorcyclists in facemasks and protective capes, rendering them as anonymous ‘knights’ from a forgotten myth. Serpents’ Tails 2015 is a new video work that extends from his Waltz of the Machine Equestrians – Machine Equestrians 2012, and draws attention to the toxic impact of heavy traffic in the city. It features a group of motorcycle ‘equestrians’, and tracks their choreographed passage through the city, accompanied by Shostakovich’s Suite for Jazz Orchestra no.2, Waltz no.2. NOMIN BOLD Born 1982, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Lives and works in Ulaanbaatar Nomin Bold’s Labyrinth game 2012 and Tomorrow 2014 combine Buddhist imagery with representations of the chaotic grid of streets in urban Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. Labyrinth game depicts the city’s geography as a literal maze, with a deity at the centre and a host of dramatic, romantic and comedic scenarios rendered in bold hues against a golden ground. Tomorrow alludes to the traditional geometry of Tibetan tangka painting, with the tangle of city streets receding with a more linear perspective, while the gods thread the scene together using power lines. Nomin’s work draws on aspects of contemporary Mongolian life, as well as moments from the country’s epic history. As economic liberalisation has precipitated rapid urbanisation in Mongolia, half the country’s population now lives in the capital city. This shift has presented significant social, infrastructural and environmental problems for a habitually nomadic people, and Nomin’s gold leaf and collaged paintings allude to these changes. PRABHAKAR PACHPUTE Born 1986, Chandrapur, India Lives and works in Mumbai, India Members of Prabhakar Pachpute’s family have worked in the coal mines of Chandrapur, Central India, for three generations. Chandrapur is known as ‘the city of black gold’, but the mine has been linked with many health and safety issues. Pachpute escaped from working the mine through his artwork, but he draws on its history in his practice. His meticulous drawings are executed in charcoal and use surrealist motifs to address issues of labour. He frequently draws directly onto walls and has created spectacular mural installations and immersive environments of wondrous landscapes and dreamlike figures. These figures are workers with their faces sometimes replaced by lanterns or mining tools, or incorporating actual light switches, reflecting both his surrealistic aesthetic and the subsuming of the individual into the larger labour force. Recently his practice has broadened to engage with various ethical, labour, environmental and economic issues around the world, each transformed through his unique, ethereal vision. SEGAR PASSI MeriamMir Dauareb people Born 1942, Dauar, Torres Strait Islands, Australia Lives and works on Mer (Murray) Island Segar Passi is an important Meriam elder who developed as a painter during the 1960s, meticulously observing marine and bird species, weather conditions,