Diversity Down Under: the most recent Asia Pacific Triennial highlighted three internationally acclaimed artists, along with a selective sample of talents from across the region - Report From Brisbane

Art in America, July, 2003 by Felicity Fenner

Since 1993, Queensland Art Gallery's Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) has established itself as the leading event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, focusing on art and artists from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Initially conceived as a series of three, the fourth event, held in Brisbane from September 2002 into January 2003, embraced a radically altered brief, most obviously in the reduction in the number of participating artists from the usual 70-plus to only 16 (including one artists' collective). Each was shown in great depth, often with works made over a number of years. Artists were selected from China and Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

The APT began at a time when Australia's labor government had secured strong economic ties with Asia and was generously funding projects that strengthened cultural and academic links to the region. In the visual arts, the APT was a flagship event and was funded accordingly. Yet by the late 1990s, Australia's new conservative leaders had made it clear that the Asia-Pacific region was no longer high on the government's agenda. The APT, still mounted with public funds though without a direct political motive, then occupied a transitional zone, resting on its well-earned reputation at the vanguard of Asia-Pacific art and curatorial practice. The decision to continue the exhibition, despite flagging political support and the original plan to hold only three, was based on the fact that it is the only event to regularly showcase art of the region. Another reason was that the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) had established a unique and burgeoning collection of works acquired from the first three shows--a large number of which were featured in this installment.

The 1999 APT [see A.i.A., Sept. '00] revealed that the exhibition in its original format had run its course. The eclectic range of art practices represented had become formulaic, and much of the work self-consciously parochial in its homespun execution and focus on very local concerns. With exhibition selection committees made up of many advisors from each country, the number of curators, critics and consultants involved was double that of artists. Overall, content was uneven, quality compromised by quantity. In its organization of the 2002-03 event, the QAG responded earnestly to the previous show's perceived shortcomings, creating an exhibition that favored a focused assessment of a few key artists, rather than the kind of sweeping overview of current art fashion that international exhibitions often provide. This approach was enhanced by the fact that the show was curated entirely in-house by QAG's own experienced and well-traveled curatorial team. The exhibition occupied the same area as before, about 70 percent of the galleries, and QAG sources claim that the same amount of funding (just over $1 million U.S.) went into the 2002 project.

The exhibition centered on three major talents from the Asia-Pacific region whom the curators considered particularly influential: Nam June Paik (Korea/USA), a renowned pioneer of video art and multimedia installations; Yayoi Kusama (Japan), an important figure in early performance art and an innovative creator of paintings, sculptures and installations over the last four decades; and Lee U-fan (Korea/Japan/France), an internationally established minimalist painter and sculptor. These artists were particularly well represented in terms of scale and scope, with the gallery showing 7 to 12 major works by each. Howard Taylor (Australia), an abstract painter and sculptor, and Ralph Hotere (New Zealand), a painter of dark, evocative minimalist canvases, were also included as significant agents of influence.

Paik's contribution was largely drawn from QAG's own collection, including Global Groove (1973), with its rapid-fire montage of video clips and sound, and the recently acquired T.V. Cello (2000). This sculpture comprises six television sets stacked into a form that suggests a cello, a reference to Paik's early performances with Charlotte Moorman.

Kusama's Narcissus Garden, first created for the artist's unofficial, uninvited, though hugely popular participation in the 1966 Venice Biennale, was adapted to become a floating installation in QAG's water forecourt. (The space is used to great effect in each APT; last time it was spanned with a giant bamboo bridge by Cai Guo-Qiang.) Kusama's buoyant mirrored balls created a gentle, calming chimelike sound as they clinked together in the water. Soul Under the Moon (2002), one of Kusama's infinity rooms conceived decades ago, transported the visitor into a magical world of darkness and light. Entering the room through a sliding elevatorlike door that led to a platform surrounded on three sides by water, wall-to-wall mirrors and hovering, brightly colored fluorescent lights, viewers were enveloped by fractured reflections in a seemingly infinite universe. The APT installations, with their hypnotic, eccentric character, appealed to audiences across a wide range of cultures and ages.