The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

more generally, in the geography of Asia and the Pacific. These dialogues are critical to the discussion of the region’s history and culture. In another vein, Luke Willis Thompson’s ongoing work in the Old Lautoka Cemetery in Fiji uncovers a history of race relationships that emerges from colonialism and its impact on indigenous communities, from indentured labour, agriculture and trade. These histories are reflected, in very concrete ways, within the design of the cemetery itself. Built into a hill, the individuals interred at the apex, and those resting in lower lying (flood prone) ground, reflect ideals of race and class endemic to particular colonial regimes. Thompson’s project is complex and layered, confronting not only the history of race, but challenging contemporary audiences to consider the roles of institutions in the continuation of this violence. His approach urges us to think deeply about these matters. More than just presenting a snapshot of artists in the Asia and Pacific, the APT helps us to question the prejudices around the role of the museum. What should be presented in a museum or gallery context? Over 16 years ago, the APT exhibited the vernacular traditions of India in the work of Sonabai, a woman from Central India who created clay-filled domestic environments of figurines and latticed jali. At the time, the inclusion of a woman making work from the simplest of materials was seen as controversial by some of the Indian art establishment, and it stirred wider criticism of the inclusion of vernacular practices within the realm of contemporary art. APT8 revisits some of these earlier conversations through a major project titled Kalpa Vriksha: Contemporary Indigenous and Vernacular Art of India. The exhibition project features 19 artists whose practices look to a range of everyday traditions and heritage knowledge. Some components are adopted, others discarded. In the combination of traditional and contemporary techniques and ideas this project presents artists working to construct a new reality. Rajwar sculpture typical of Sonabai’s village in Chhattisgarh, Central India / Photographer unknown / Courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Research Library Archive