The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

229 APT9 KIDS Children’s workshop for Joyce Ho’s UN-Covered Library 2018 / Photograph: Joe Ruckli Top: SADIK KWAISH ALFRAJI Iraq/The Netherlands b.1960 Ali’s Boat (still) 2015 Single-channel animation film: 6:36 minutes, sound / Courtesy: The artist and Ayyam Gallery APT9 KIDS APT9 Kids offers children and families a rich and multilayered experience, bringing together projects by artists from across the Asia Pacific, from Iraq to Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Connecting with broader exhibition themes, APT9 Kids highlights a number of shared ideas while traversing multiple perspectives and approaches to art-making. Projects by Jeff Smith, Pauline Kimei Anis and Nona Garcia consider the preciousness of life and natural resources. Children can swim with the fish off the Kiribati Islands, make their own necklace inspired by those made of shell in Bougainville, and form patterns from X-rays of coral and animal bones. Gary Carsley’s Purple Reign 2018 reflects on the extinction of animal species, with the iconic jacaranda tree symbolising the effects of European colonisation. Revisiting history — and the ongoing implications of Australia’s colonial past — is also central to the work of Vincent Namatjira, whose provocative and witty project Power Portraits 2018 explores symbols of authority. Of equal importance to broader Australian narratives are personal and family histories, and the way storytelling enables people to connect across generations. Joyce Ho creates a kind of theatre out of the physical act of reading, while Jakkai Siributr shares the story of The Legend of the Rainbow Stag , which was passed on to him by his mother. Siributr has also worked with children in Thailand to create embroidered drawings of this tale for display in the Children’s Art Centre. A drawing given to Sadik Kwaish Alfraji by his young nephew inspired his animation Ali’s Boat 2015, which delves into the bittersweet reality of dreams and the artist’s reflections on his childhood in Iraq. Displayed alongside this moving work is an activity inviting children to reflect on what they wish for most. Alfraji has also worked with the Children’s Art Centre to develop a children’s storybook, based on an original artwork that tells a story about his past, his family and his relationship with his country.