LAST RIDE IN A HOT AIR BALLOON

THE FOURTH AUCKLAND TRIENNIAL

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Coming from a final visit to Brisbane’s Sixth Asia-Pacific Triennial (APT6, with its selection of work by one hundred artists from twenty-five countries to digest), I needed a few hours to adjust to a different tempo. The two international profiles of contemporary art could not be more dissimilar. Obviously the Australian event confines its catchment of artists according to race and country affiliation (the Asia-Pacific and its diasporas) while Auckland’s multi-venue Triennial reaches even further afield. Yet only in the case of film media, and in certain instances where discreet drawings and objects crept into the spectacular imperative of Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art/Queensland Art Gallery installations, did it seem that the curators had a parallel agenda. There are of course architectural considerations to take into account, and not least budgetary ones, with the APT housed in comparatively large spaces which beg monumental statements, and a catalogue that parallels this generosity. In New Zealand, Auckland’s premier gallery is closed until 2011, hence it was not included in the cluster of this year’s Triennial venues, which were (with the exception of the NEW Gallery and Shed 6) generally small. Certainly, some of them were ‘out of the way’ which was not conducive to reading the event as homogenous.

Nevertheless, it is of interest to note how markedly different, in conceptual terms, the Fourth Auckland Triennial was. For instance, almost nothing in curator Natasha Conland’s ‘Last Ride’ could be taken at face value and, unlike the APT, was able to satisfy the senses through innovative presence alone. Each group of works by twenty-nine artists from eighteen countries demanded close analysis for full appreciation, as ‘Last Ride’ was a complex and intellectually astute... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Michael Stevenson, On How Things Behave, 2010. Still. HD and 16mm transferred to DVD, 16:9 ratio, colour, sound, 15:43min. Commissioned by Objectif exhibitions, Antwerp and the 4th Auckland Triennial. Script: Mark von Schlegell, Ben Carter and the artist; Camera: Volker Gläser; Sound: Titus Maderlechner; Voice: Susanne Märtens; Editing: Yvonne Mohr and the artist. Courtesy the artist and Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.

Shilpa Gupta, Untitled, 2008-09. Split-flap display board, commissioned by Le Laboratoire, Paris. Courtesy Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark