The Other APT

**Archie Moore**: E 2005, video still. Image courtesy of Christine Peacock.

An Aboriginal panel participant in the first Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) in 1993 related to me that after responding to the invitation, she realised on the day that she was the only Aboriginal speaker. Being so affronted by the Indigenous absence she stated she would never come back (and hasn't). One of the nagging criticisms of Brisbane's hugely successful APT has been their handling of 'the Aboriginal problem' and finding a space for the Asian and Pacific within us; those local Australian societies of Asian and Pacific heritage who have had a long and deep relationship with our national identity; though often folded/secreted within. Finding a credible comfortable conceptual space and opportunity for local participation rather than artist heroes from major economic giants of the region has lingered as a quandary of what has otherwise been a major achievement.

In Paris in the mid 1800s the work of the officially accepted and exhibited artists in the Academy became so atrophied and exclusive that the Emperor intervened to establish an exhibition of the rejected artwork and other parallel alternative events. For the first APTs Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art, and a number of commercial galleries, provided a form of 'Salons des Refuses' which contrasted and extended the themes of the main event. Sadly some now feel the IMA has morphed into a semi-official out-gallery of QGA/GOMA and no longer fulfills this role. Maybe the Emperor of Queensland needs to act? In this environment it's good to see someone like artist and curator Jenny Fraser actively providing another 'opening' for artists beyondthe official frame. The medium is the message and in placing themselves in Raw Space Gallery, incorporated Parisian style inside a cafe and bar, they were truly alternative to the 'Big Art Gallery' just across the back alleyway.

In my recent stay in Japan my hosts stuffed me with masses of food and drink at every turn until I complained and queried why I was being fattened like some prime Kobe beef carcass. It was explained to me that as the lack of a common language restricted the depth of communication that could occur between us they kept laying on the food to ensure my happiness. I often wonder how much communication really transpires in blockbuster events and whether the level of exchange is in inverse proportion to the level of the party laid on.

The Other APT exhibition explored issues for ‘Australia’s’ Native peoples and our role in the Asia Pacific Region, and also dealt with the issues of the migration of our neighbours including the importance of Place, Legend, Identity, Politics and Mutual Respect. All in the interest of open art dialogue. Although the exhibition of over 21 artists featured works from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Melanesian, Polynesian, Maori and Asian peoples based in Australia, it was in the margins and blurred border regions of each of these definitions that the concept of the exhibition lay. Ambitiously it operated almost on an all-in, shotgun effect in order to achieve this connection to the edge, democratically featuring painting, digital prints, moving image, installations and performance of all kinds, scales and degrees of excellence and reputation from local grassroots artists. Parts of course succeed more than others but with this type of ‘happening’ there can be no notion of merely ‘sour grapes’, as some of the original energy, communication, excitement, and feeling of ownership of the art process is generated and experienced. This is the energy major art events struggle to maintain. The work called Framed, Polytoxic’s collaboration with Chantall Fraser [no relation] on opening night in the restricted street level window box, contained some of the best aesthetic qualities of ironically called ‘hybrid’ artwork. These contrasted with, but complemented, the classically formal crafted rainforest shields and swords of Paul Bong in the next box.

The inside-outside nature of the exhibition space contributed to the overall balance of the show. ‘you can be heroes’ – Jenny Fraser’s own contribution was the community, fraternal ‘Native All Stars’, framed T-shirts and card collectibles. Charles Street’s silkscreen prints, using a colour theory type of montage are reminiscent of the proximity of PNG and our indifferent connection to it as a cultural and social site. He has recently worked in the now famous sculpture centre of Aurukun on west Cape York. Archie Moore's poignant colonial landscape talked of the indigenous absence, the great silence in Australian history concerning the Aboriginal presence. Ann Fuata's wandering black bobby pinned character performance confronted attempts to control our self-image and personal sexuality. Overall an amazing mixed cavalcade that was well worth the effort and must happen next time.

A closing footnote - down the road in Westend the mysterious studio of the 'proppaNow' Indigenous art group presented their initial exhibition There Goes the Neighbourhood, to provide a bookend to the other APT A strong all Aboriginal artist show, it was made really interesting for me by the new work of their younger members: the photographic series 50 percent by Tony, Albert and the Window of Opportunity

Djon Mundine is Indigenous Curator: Contemporary Art, for the Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney

Next article in this issue

More from this Issue

Skywriting

The idea of four-dimensional sculpture proposed by the Dimensionalist Manifesto of 1936 has found its realisation through the continuing use of skywriting as a medium in contemporary art. Here Richard Tipping briefly discusses the phenomenon looking at artists Mary Lou Pavlovic and Guy Warren who produced works in association with major public, sporting and political events within Australia. Tipping also raises the question of how such a temporal practice as this is to be considered within the realm of contemporary art.

Richard Tipping

Emily Floyd against herself

Emily Floyd is attracted to texts that focus on identity and place and that offer new ways of thinking about these issues in the light of globalisation and post-colonialism. She is interested in the malleability of language and its connection to knowledge and power. The process Floyd employs to produce her numerous large-scale wooden letters mirrors the anxiety and obsessions with the various novels they are referencing Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, Kafkas The Trial and Camus The Outsider. Sarah Tutton looks at Floyds practice, calling particular attention to her recent installation works its because I talk too much that I do nothing, Gen-existential Crisis and Compulsory for young intellectuals.

Sarah Tutton

Playing with art & language: some personal memories

Peter Hill chooses here to examine a personal interest in the marriage of text and image in contemporary art. From the inextricable links between text and image made through magazine and advertising media to the mix of graffiti and gravitas achieved through the works of Jean Michael Basquiat, this article covers a wide range of avenues and artists paramount to this investigation. Other key figures mentioned include Joseph Kosuth, John A. Walker, Ed Ruscha, Peter Burgess, Bruce McLean, Lawrence Weiner, Douglas Gordon, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer and Thyrza Nicholas Goodeve.

Peter Hill

A new alphabet? Guan Wei goes bush

A project coordinated by 24HR Art in Darwin brought artists of Chinese, European and Japanese origin to the township of Injalak in Gunbalanya, Western Arnhem Land. Ashley Crawford looks at the time Chinese-born, Sydney-based artist Guan Wei spent with three members of the local community and the stories he learnt to accompany the ancient rock art of this region. Subsequent to discovering the similarities between Indigenous Australian and Chinese visual narratives, Wei wanted to use the images as an alphabet to tell the story of his own encounters and experiences with the people and the landscape of Gunbalanya.

Ashley Crawford

Gwangju Biennale, South Korea

2006 marked the 6th Gwangju Biennale: Fever Variations in South Korea. Stephanie Britton sets the scene for what she describes as having been generous and daring, though not grand or pretentious and never (that kiss of death) magisterial. This event saw a definite shift from an international focus to look more intently at Asian preoccupations of the recent past as played out in the minds and hands of artists. Some of the simple headings at the recent Biennale were Myth and Fantasy; Nature and Body; Trace of Mind; Past in Present, as a way to initiate dialogue and illuminate the stories of how Asian artists began to work within an international context. Some of the artists showcased were Xu Bing (China), Kim Jong-ku (Korea), Miwa Yanagi (Japan) and Lee Sookyung (Korea).

Stephanie Britton

Glory, glory, glory curated by Elizabeth Gertsakis

Melbourne public culture, curator/artist Elizabeth Gertsakis assembled a visual arts project around the life and work of early twentieth century Melbourne entrepreneur, sports and entertainment manager John Wren1871-1953. Artmaking, curating, presentation and display in a broad not narrowly discipline-centric definition are explored and unpicked. His world is, as Gertsakis argues, a constructed, directed one of effect and presentation within which Wren emerges as exemplar and victim in a process of image creation and narrative spinning that is central to social life in a media age.

Juliette Peers

Megan Walch

Doppel Lecker: Megan Walch Criterion Gallery Hobart 12 October - 11 November 2006

Sean Kelly

Walking with letters: Michael Parekowhai, John Reynolds, John Pule

This article looks at the recent works of New Zealand artists Michael Parekowhai, John Pule and John Reynolds to explore notions of identity through text and image relations. Parekowhais sculptural piece The Indefinite Article spells out I AM HE in an ironic critique of Colin McCahon and goes further through wordplay to cement a link between the word, identity and the complexities of translation. Reynolds Cloud comprised of nearly 7,000 white canvases transcribed with words from Harry Orsmans Oxford Dictionary of New Zealand English and acts to illuminate New Zealands separate identity and regional diversity within a worldwide community of English speakers. Stories of migration, of dispossession, of alienation characterise the work of John Pule. Similar to Parekowhai and Reynolds, Pule deploys words to multiply meanings and confound interpretation or translation.

Rob Garrett

Ann Newmarch

Anticipation Ann Newmarch Prospect Gallery Adelaide 5 - 26 November 2006

Ian Hamilton

Hiraki Sawa

Hiraki Sawa New Media Gallery, Level 3 National Gallery of Victoria International Melbourne 7 July - 3 December 2006

Anna Zagala

Rodney Glick/Lynette Voevedin

24Hr Panoramas Rodney Glick and Lynnette Voevodin Curator: Gary Dufour Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth 16 November 2006 - 21 January 2007

Jasmin Stephens

Artrave

Artlink

View all articles in this issue