Life and Times of the Asia Pacific Triennial

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Arshile Gorky said that Socialist Realism was ‘poor art for poor people’.¹ Twenty-five years ago recent Asian art was regarded as poor art by poor people, not only in Australia but throughout the Western world. In 1991, when the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) was starting, Asialink (at that time still a new organisation itself) undertook research which indicated that Australian school children commonly visualised Asia in terms of ‘poverty, paddy fields and pandas’.² I remember a suite of drawings being produced by these students showing farmers bending over rice plants wearing conical hats and not much else. This was despite, at the time, Japan being the innovative, wealthy, dynamic, urban, techno-smart society that it still is, Indonesian language and culture being taught widely, Singapore creating entities like its superior airline system, Hong Kong’s neon cityscape one of the most recognisable in the world, and Taiwan and Korea creating brand name commodities used by most households.

The APT’s achievement was to overturn that image of ‘Asian’ art (if not Asia more broadly—see below). After that first great surge of excitement born of knowledge of the achievement, the challenge became how to continue the gig with this same energy and excitement. Was it even possible? To the eternal credit of the Queensland Art Gallery (now also Gallery of Modern Art: QAGOMA) and its supporters—including so importantly the Queensland Government—they have striven to keep reinventing their model, to keep it alive and fresh, beguiling, intriguing, startling, and rewarding.

They have not said ‘we’ve done that enough, what else is new?’, the refrain of so many in government, particularly politicians. They have built on foundations laid of long commitment and, even more... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Rosanna Raymond, SaVAge K’lub, 2010–ongoing. Mixed media installation with ongoing actiVAtions. This project was realised with the support of Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearo and Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust, Auckland. Brisbane SaVAge K’lub developed for APT8. Image courtesy Queensland Art Gallery.

Baatarzorig Batjargal, Nomads, 2014. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 100 x 150cm. Purchased 2015. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation Grant. Collection Queensland Art Gallery