APT7: HIGHS AND LOWS

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Eyeline asked several art world participants to comment on one aspect of the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial that engaged them and one that did not. We received the following responses.

Andrew McNamara:

Large crowds, including many from the national and international artworld, attended the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT7) opening weekend. What the fly in, fly out crowd would have missed is the extensive scale of activities held throughout the exhibition’s duration. Despite this investment in public programs (talks, events, screenings), the overall program had a disjointed quality. This was particularly true of the talks and discussions on the opening weekend, which gave little insight into any particular topic or the wider rationale of APT7.

This is the most disappointing aspect of the APT as it has developed to this point. Despite being immersed from the outset in a discursive framework (regionalism, diaspora, ethnicity and identity politics, post-colonialism, tradition versus contemporary culture), the APT has fallen into an anaemic, never-land in which the context for real debate and an understanding of its ambition has disappeared. This is usually blamed on the overriding emphasis on crowd numbers and the expectation that every exhibition must be stunningly spectacular, irrespective of the content. I am not against visual arts exhibitions being popular and well attended. Their successes help to promote the richness and vibrancy of contemporary visual arts to large audiences. Yet, this does not mean that we have to ignore the thorny issues that generate that vibrancy. Art is largely incomprehensible without a sense of them.

A good example was the talk with Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, the President of the Sharjah Art Foundation, which was meant to discuss contemporary art of... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

An-My Lê, Patient Admission, US Naval Hospital Ship Mercy, Vietnam(from 'Events Ashore' series), 2010. Archival inkjet pigment print on 380gsm Harman Professional Inkjet paper moulded on sintra, ed. 2/5. The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2011 with funds from Michael Sydney Myer through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Collection Queensland Art Gallery.

Slavs and Tatars, PrayWay,2012. Silk and wool carpet, MDF, steel, neon. Courtesy the artists, The Third Line, Dubai and Kraupa-Tuskany, Berlin. © The artists. Photograph Mark Sherwood.