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The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Jasmin Stephens
Eyeline 78/79
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The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial’s (APT7’s) superbly curated exhibition and cinema program marked the twentieth anniversary of this flagship event with its ground-breaking focus on the contemporary art of Asia, the Pacific and Australia. Despite the occasion, it seemed at pains to distance itself from any congratulatory tone, taking a uniform approach to the wealth of ideas and practices on display. This had the effect of modulating the institutional intent of the exhibition, as well as allowing a more contemplative apprehension of works than viewers may have encountered in recent APTs. APT7 charted the coordinates of the Asia-Pacific region in an understated fashion—playing to the strengths of its inherited institutional framework rather than generating the kinds of shifts that we should anticipate as it looks to continue its eminent contribution to artistic and cultural ambitions in the region.

APT7 was exhibition making of the highest order. Avoiding an over-concentration of subject, technique and materials, or too abrupt a disjunction between works, it lent significance to every work regardless of the scale of its installation. Its organisation was handled deftly without overly predicting viewers’ responses to the works and to their arrangement. 

The exhibition’s relatively unadorned approach allowed such stand-out works as Yuan Goang-Ming’s meditation on the cycle of life and death, Tadasu Takamine’s affecting response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and collective Tromarama’s quirky commentary on Indonesian current affairs, to shine. The exhibition was notable for the way it supported the reception of more minimal conceptual works and facilitated APT’s engagement with a wider scope of art historical discourses. APT7 brought the post-modern and post-colonial strategies of appropriation, quotation and parody into closer proximity with the formal and social concerns... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Heman Chong, Asia/Pacific/Triennial, 2012

Heman Chong, Asia/Pacific/Triennial, 2012. 20-channel sound installation. Commissioned for APT7. Supported by the National Arts Council of Singapore. Courtesy and © the artist. Photograph Mark Sherwood. 

Tintin Wulia, Eeny Meeny Money Moe, 2012

Tintin Wulia, Eeny Meeny Money Moe, 2012. Interactive installation with toy passports and synchronised machines. Commissioned for APT7. Courtesy the artist and Osage Gallery, Hong Kong. © The artist. Photograph Mark Sherwood.