Public Ambitions: The State and the Art Lee Weng-Choy

he media release fact sheet was vague The Artreader wants to be accessible, but at the as more pleasurable than controversial? Such about it. The dimensions were same time wants to challenge. The newspaper questions should be asked, and The Artreader Tgiven in precise measurements: form has its origins as a central public space asks a fair share of them. there are 10,588 cubic metres of concrete and not only for the dissemination of information, But we won’t presume to comprehensively 9,134 square metres of glass, in case you’re but also the expression of considered opinion. tackle GoMA and APT5 — how can we in a wondering. But the construction cost for the This publication aspires to that ideal: the mere 16 pages? The last thing we wish to do is new Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) was listed common meeting point that does not aim underestimate the breadth and depth of what at an elusive-sounding $100 million plus. to lower the common denominator, but to has been accomplished. If we are upfront with One can imagine that “plus” being a whole lot elevate it. our critical stance, we also uphold generosity more than a few extra dollars. More important than the actual fi gure, however, is a reckoning that the full cost of Exactly what kind of space for art and GoMA is more diffi cult to measure than anyone can readily imagine. It’s not just a culture does GoMA provide? building; it’s an institution – an institution which claims to be a major public cultural space for city, state, country, region and This is not far from the rhetoric as an ideal for criticism, and believe criticism beyond. If one were to account for every surrounding GoMA. In Director Doug is best when it acts as a good companion. item that made possible this addition to the Hall’s words, the architecture is “grand” but At a panel discussion on one of the show’s Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), for starters, also “democratic”; “elegant” but “supremely highlights, The Long March Project, QAG’s you’d have to consider the enormous efforts functional”. Suhanya Raffel asked Lu Jie, the Project’s and personal sacrifi ces of all the gallery staff, Art often wants it many ways. Works of art Chief Curator, this question:“The Long the designers, contractors and builders. may arise from deeply personal experiences, March is a very ambitious project; there must There are also the non-fi nancial investments offering highly particular insights, but they be things that didn’t work.” To which he by GoMA’s stakeholders. How does one also aspire for public, even universal appeal. replied, “Those are the most beautiful parts measure those years of travel and research, Many a work of art is full of contradictions, of the project.” those years of behind-the-scenes manoeuvres and it is precisely by not fl attening out these and negotiations? Both The Long March, an open- contradictions that works are thought of as ended multiple artist project, and APT5, But on top of that, a question looms: good. an exhibition curated by a state-owned Exactly what kind of space for art and culture So how does an institution, and, gallery, have public ambitions. These two does such a major building provide? in this case, a state-owned one, handle sets of ambitions, while not the same, are not To be upfront, the publication you have contradiction? APT5 has made clear it exhibits necessarily opposite either; the interesting in your hand, The Artreader, is a critical response artists as individuals, with all their individual question is how they intersect. Another to the new gallery and its inaugural show, the specifi city, complexity and ambiguity — not comment by Lu Jie is apropos: “The Long Fifth Asia-Pacifi c Triennial (APT5). We at as representatives of nations. Yet how has March is a diffi cult thing. One problem is my The Artreader believe it is not only necessary QAG as a state institution expressed its own lack of suffi cient theoretical and curatorial to respond to APT5 and GoMA, but to underlying tensions? How open or public has preparation. A bigger problem is that respond critically. Such an important effort, it been about its struggles, about what hasn’t envisioning and planning are nothing more investment and institution demands debate worked so well? than envisioning and planning.” and discussion. Admittedly, ours is a quick During the opening weekend of APT5, response, made within weeks of the opening. The Artreader heard opinions that the show Typically, criticism requires more time for lacks edginess, or that it does not make a refl ection. Our intention with this single- strong curatorial statement. Does this have edition newspaper is to act as a catalyst for something to do with the way the Gallery’s critical engagement with the many diverse collecting determines its curating? If that is and complex themes and ideas that underlie in fact the situation, is QAG becoming more what is on display. Our hope is to be like a backward looking than forward leaning? If companion the gallery visitor can take along as it is a truly surprising achievement that the she or he views the spaces and the art. Queensland Government has invested so Our choice of a newspaper format presents much in contemporary art — and not just local a problem that confronts GoMA, QAG and art, but art from Asia and the Pacifi c — is it the APT as well. We too want it both ways; any surprise that the exhibition comes across Bharti Kher The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (detail) 2006 Impossible Lightness Our Place in the Sun Lily Hibberd n a short sequence from Dinh Q impossible. But if we stop bringing the American audiences. It’s all about the Destiny! Isn’t it? Le’s video The Farmers And The Helicopters work of other cultures into the country, Outside the biennial circuit, there has I(2006), a panoramic scene takes cultural exchange will perish. It’s like two been progress on this issue, with examples Holly Arden over all three screens. It’s an open fi eld, players drawing in a game of chequers: an like Rapt!: 20 Contemporary Artists From Japan. with swathes of long grass swaying in a gentle immobilising paradox, equivalent to the fi eld Organised as a cultural exchange between breeze. Simple images speak powerfully, in Dinh Q Le’s video. Australia and Japan, and funded by the No house should ever be on a hill or on its own”. For my part, I was glad it was OK and localised, about “belonging” and and this one tells of post-war regrowth and In a domain composed of contradictions Japan Foundation, three Japanese curators anything. It should be of the hill. — I’ve gotten used to it being there. How does “ownership” surrounding the opening of renewal, the grass literally germinated on the and the likelihood of paralysis, APT5 is at headed up the Rapt! advisory team (disclosure: a building like Stefan’s come to belong within GoMA: that the building belongs within a killing fi elds of Vietnam. It’s also empty like the very least an action. Great, you say, so I was a member of the team). Colonising Belonging to it. Hill and house should a landscape? region (Queensland, Australia and the Asia- the impossible void that defi nes a past riddled what’s extraordinary about that? It’s a bold Melbourne with 20 Japanese artists over 11 live together each the happier for each Another anecdote, this one local and Pacifi c), that GoMA’s Queenslander design with ignoble and haunting events that we only move, both ordinary and extraordinary, venues in September 2006, Rapt! illustrated personal: my family emigrated to Australia grounds it in localised cultural memory, want to forget. contemporary curating at the edge. As with a viable alternative - a role reversal in other. — Frank Lloyd Wright from Scotland in the mid 1990s. My fi rst that State Government has worked on our Nowhere is this insidious history more any homeshow or showcase, it’s too easy to curatorial practice. APT5, in contrast, is experience of Brisbane, not unusual for behalf to deliver it, that the art collection belongs to “us”, and so forth. There’s also pertinent and pervasive than in the Asia- drift, happily browsing through the array of not programmed from this perspective; it n November 2006, the neon-tipped an immigrant, was that I didn’t belong. Orientation — fi xing myself to the landscape talk of the breaking down or “opening up” of Stefan Skyneedle in Brisbane’s West institutional space – returning this space to End burst into fl ames. Word on the — wasn’t aided by the fact that the city has I few major landmarks (Skyneedle aside): no public ownership. street was that wet weather or a build-up of bird poo might have short-circuited the tower’s Eiffel Tower, no Sydney Opera House and The architects’ statement on the QAG/ rainbow lights. Embarking on repairs, the certainly no Edinburgh Castle. The Brisbane GoMA website asserts: “The Gallery building, Skyneedle owner, local hairdressing magnate River anchors two sides of a CBD that are through its transparency, a long linear Stefan, was quoted as saying, “It will now be undergoing major development. connective spine, and a series of expansive, whatever the best in the world is, because I My eventual sense of belonging to Brisbane open verandahs, becomes one with the public think the Skyneedle’s part of our life now.” came via a number of factors: familiarity with space in which it is connected. An art gallery the city over time, the fostering of personal is a public building. Its signifi cance for the I begin with a local anecdote because public consciousness is characterised by the Stefan’s monument has, purportedly, a special connections and, perversely, going back to Scotland and realising I no longer quite fact that it returns enclosed public space to signifi cance within Brisbane’s landscape. For the city.” one, it’s a highly visible — some would say belonged there either. So how does a person garish — reminder of Expo ’88, after which come to belong within a landscape? Lindsay Clare, GoMA co-architect, (it’s said locally) Brisbane as a city “came into There’s a great deal of discourse, broad adds, “We felt that this building had to not be intimidating or imposing, and that people Dinh Q Lê The Farmers And The Helicopters (still) 2006 would be encouraged to enter it and enjoy entering it.” The building’s architecture conforms to surrounding environs. It’s adjacent to the Brisbane River, with glass to Pacifi c region, and for APT5 it is an objects, as if they were boats, spa baths or is curated in-house by Australians, from an let in light and an overhanging roof to keep inescapable undercurrent. Artists will recollect wedding dresses. While reading and looking Australian point of view, albeit with a history it out. the past through their work, and viewers will — in the interests of discrimination, which of networking in the region. write or read the past into it, regardless of the is not always a bad thing — consider the Local journalist Matthew Condon In any case, three approaches characterise writes, “the new cultural precinct is a physical level of abstraction. Emptiness can be heavy, question: does APT5 really work? Don’t be the biennial today. as it is in Anish Kapoor’s red pigment void, fooled, there’s no point saying APT5 is a monument to how radically Queenslanders Untitled (1995), where saturation is taken to failure — even if it might be impossible to tell Firstly, there’s the tried-but-not-always- have changed their relationship with their the point of nothingness. It’s unbearably how it’s succeeded. true thematic approach. It’s generally very own space even in the past 20 years. Where broad, allowing for an eclectic list of artists once we turned inward, away from the river light yet terribly compelling. This confl ation On a historical level, if we is precisely the dilemma of contemporary art, to be included. Here’s a few to look up: Belief, and the sun and heat, today we open our arms consider what might be precedents Singapore’s 2006 show; Of Mice And Men, to our subtropical conditions, and work with particularly when it is vaguely or indirectly for the biennial or triennial, we political: how to weigh it up, is it light or is the 2006 Berlin Biennial; and in 2005, them.” (Courier-Mail 25-26 November 2006) could look to the World Expositions. A Yokohama’s Art Circus: Jumping From The Ordinary. it heavy? model popular in the late 19th century, it Public access is prioritised through Michael Parekowhai’s 2001 work The has parallels with the showcase form, only In the second category, the program outreach education, including dedicated Consolation Of Philosophy is another good example with a terrifying colonial impetus. In the mid offers a title, but the curators avoid adhering children’s programming. Such championing of this light-heavy conundrum. Even if the 20th century, at the dawn of globalisation, to obvious themes. The 2006 Sydney of collective civic space, of accessibility and incisive didactic panel in GoMA elucidates the genre was resuscitated in the form of the Biennale, Zones Of Contact, follows this recipe. openness of course has fi nancial and political its subject – Maori soldiers’ sacrifi ce on the Expo, Brisbane having its own in 1988. Not Bumping into its curator Charles Merewether prerogatives, including increasing visitor WW1 battlegrounds of Europe – chances many curators, however, refer to this as an at GoMA this week, he remarked that I should numbers and community spirit, support for are a lot of people will stop in front of these antecedent. note there was “absolutely no mention of the the team, etc. And there are many positives word ‘theme’ in his biennale”. I wonder if to this. stunning photographs and think, “hmmm, Like innumerable other biennials nice vase of fl owers”. And although the this disavowal of the term “theme” is a fruitful I’d like to refl ect more widely, however, and triennials, the APT, now in its fi fth exercise, particularly when audiences are given prismatic arrangement of form and content incarnation, continues to present a carefully on some of the claims made for Brisbane’s a title that operates as if there were one. new civic space. My questions are: how does Thirdly, there’s no theme or title, but a a building come to belong to us, and us to it? clear curatorial framework established over How does GoMA as a structure represent the For Australia to present art from the Asia- the exhibition’s history. The various Documentas Gallery’s wider sense of place within the Asia- and Manifestas are examples of this. Pacifi c, the regional purview of its fl agship Pacifi c comprehensively is very hard, maybe What are the dangers of the hands-off APT exhibition? no-theme approach? Two aspects defi ne These questions are important because of impossible. the void. There’s silence in which anxiety GoMA’s own focus on place and site, amidst subsides, then generalisations set off default what are seemingly areas of confl ict and modes, going hand-in-hand with avoidance, ambiguity. There’s been a deal of this with the is utterly disarming it approximates a lot of selected body of art from the region. It negation and denial. The other aspect is its precinct built on traditional — some would contemporary political artwork in remaining follows on from a recent fl ush of shows this indeterminacy, in which there can be a lack of say still occupied — Turrbal lands at Kurilpa opaque — the light of the message fi ltered year, including the Singapore, Shanghai direction or confusion, and it can be unclear Point. Community and government groups through the frosted glass of art. and Gwangju exhibitions. That Asian art who is authorising the work. There are also have worked to assist with the relocation of Art can be very effective at engaging is being contexualised by Asian curators assumptions and a false sense of consensus, Indigenous and non-Indigenous homeless disparate histories and traumas, and the within their own region has to be a positive or real consensus around false assumptions, living around the area. case for letting an artwork speak for itself is development. This doesn’t, however, mean often reinforcing pre-existing prejudices and According to some, the State Government still relevant, in art circles anyway. This is that the issue of representation, the questions hegemonies. has continued to miss the mark. Papers cited not in and of itself a problem. What seems of “by whom?” and “for whom?” have been White cube curating isn’t neutral, of Aboriginal elder Auntie Valda Coolwell’s problematic is where, how and by whom these neatly resolved. One must resist the urge to course. It’s coloured by modernist ideology comment that, despite spending $100 million pasts get displayed in major international generalise. One Asian nation is by no means and a specifi c history of institutionalised on the Gallery, the Government had not exhibitions that cater to local audiences. the same as the next, and Asian biennials have culture. Museums exist all over the world, started the new Aboriginal Cultural Centre For Australia to present art from the Asia- also been as preoccupied as European ones but their collecting, categorising and Eko Nugroho It’s All About The Destiny! Isn’t It? (detail) 2006 in West End. (continued on p.2) Pacifi c comprehensively is very hard, maybe with presenting Asian art to European and interpretating are (continued on p.2)

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 01 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 02

Impossible Lightness Our Place in the Sun continued… continued… Reconfi guring Culture typically modelled on 19th century the discrepancy of art’s claim to “democracy” categories, APT5 is like an expo. It is easy to The Gallery’s “two sites, one vision” Back to the architecture. Place is a preoccupations with ordering nature. If and the rhetoric of politics, when the words see this as a refl ection of democratic ideology, mission statement, which incorporates the destination, but also a feeling, and maybe, the museum and the white cube gallery are become like slogans, depressingly resonant of yet — similar to revivals of utopian principles new GoMA building, suggests a solid si(gh)ted as Eko Nugroho’s mural suggests, a destiny. Kris Carlon Western, we have to question the politics of neo-conservative patter. We need to be more in forums of architecture — it’s open but programming direction. APT5 is touted as its The ways in which sites gather a sense of place their application in curating art and artefacts sceptical about what art gains from deploying problematic. Buried under the smoothly fl agship project, and into the two Galleries is fl uid, almost too fl uid to write about or to as it a dadaist or a futurist that Speaking of worth, Ai Weiwei’s “spectacular QAG/GoMA, at least on the surface, seems from elsewhere. this idiom. The last thing we need is galleries rendered concrete of modern buildings are pour disparate sentiments and approaches erect a building and suggest it’s more than said it is better to tear down a monument to consumption and display”, the obvious, but one can only ponder the towards place and culture. Comments have just that. The South Bank precinct has been museum than to build one? site-specifi c commission Boomerang (2006), degree to which the “moral and structural Following the white cube, another layer as the polity or artists as politicos. fraught legacies of Western framing and neo- W colonial apparitions. Acknowledgements been made about APT5’s open curatorial style designated a Cultural Centre (again, the I can’t quite recall, but the sentiment will functions like a metaphor for the new gallery principles” of each building overlap. While of curatorial practice emerged in the 1990s As a way forward, APT5 distinguishes itself or lack of overall theme compared with other focus on sites and centres), however, in one suffi ce. Their mutual interest in destroying itself (although it is housed in the old QAG). technically still one institution, one would — the idea that the reception of culture from all three previously outlined approaches. won’t return the land to the Turrbal people, whose territory GoMA is built on. biennials and triennials, despite intriguing sense it didn’t or can’t just become one, an “I culture to create something new provides a The stats read like those wheeled out about hope certain lessons have been learnt and should be democratic. In the propulsion With its lack of title, no theme, no established and complex associations between art and am”. This is Timothy Hill’s view, the architect valuable reference point for understanding the gallery: 270,000 crystals, seven metres improvements implemented in the creation toward the political lies another paradox: framework, and no aesthetic or national History cannot be erased and it will rear its place. of the revamped State Library of Queensland, the work of Ai Weiwei, who is often described high by eight-and-a-half metres wide, such- of the new building. So does this anticipate ugly head — we’re caught between the need for This gesture is not only distinctly un- and it’s one I tend to agree with. as a neo-dadaist and whose work features and-such a weight at such-and-such a cost. division, or can the two sites, like a pair of progress and anxieties about transgressions in traditional, it’s also, Rex Butler argues, prominently in APT5. And yet, both Ai Weiwei Impressive numbers sure, but what does it all older and younger siblings who have been put the past. For art, what lies beyond or outside Hill describes Brisbane’s architecture as the only way forward following the collapse a network of interconnecting precincts, in and dada have contributed to culture despite add up to? The answer is a function of public at opposite ends of the room, come together the old frameworks is arguably the only way of traditional thinking around dominant appearances to the contrary. Ai Weiwei in turn perception. The chandelier — like the urn and play nicely? of moving beyond legacies of the past. In which amenities of a similar type are held cultural centres (Europe, America) and the within distinct areas (the Cultural Centre as provides an interesting model for interpreting and the gallery — represents “a potent symbol In the lead-up to the opening celebrations emptying out the viewing frame of curatorial periphery (including Australia and the Asia- the new QAG/GoMA development and the of refi ned taste, cultural achievement and direction there’s a risk that audiences will distinct from Grey Street’s restaurants, for we heard the rumour that the two galleries Pacifi c). He argues that given a dissolving of example, and from The Queen Street Mall’s question of cultural value. purchasing power”. only see a blank canvas, or that they’ll get lost these historical centres, “there is no longer any in an unscripted zone. clothing stores). Suffi ce to say that there’s a way for the museum to exercise its traditional niggling tension between centre — prime sites Standing in front of Din Q Le’s video, privilege of selecting important or signifi cant for culture — and the democratic model of Was it a dadaist or a futurist that said it is better to tear down a the thick grass of the fi eld is impassable. works of art, identifying stylistic turning culture happening anywhere and everywhere. It’s overgrown and the tracks indiscernible points or even the fusion and hybridising — in the aftermath of the war the people had of these mainstream styles”. (Courier-Mail 4 Experience of place is informed from museum than to build one? forgotten how to dream. To remain on the December 2006) multiple, intersecting, and sometimes, weirdly anachronistic places. The feeling of déjà vu, edge is to avoid or deny the events that have If APT5 is representative of GoMA as a Ai Weiwei, with his penchant for It’s because we believe in something would be separated administratively. And taken place, while walking over old ground even belonging, can arise, for instance, on a structure, this quote from GoMA’s architects fi rst visit to New York City because it’s been “reconfi guring” ancient Chinese artefacts, that it matters to us in such a tangible way. although this has been steadfastly denied, weds people to the past. How, then, should could be telling: “The building creates a as in Dropping A Han Dynasty Urn (1995), has In many respects the watermall space could some symptoms of division are already visible. viewers navigate the infi nite realm of the so often already visited through fi lm. Smells dialogue with the Asia-Pacifi c region and with bring back old times and places. A deal of this attracted both critical acclaim and scorn. be seen as the traditional heart of the APT, The simple fact of two sites, one old and one open fi eld? We’ve all seen the tracks formed ideas of lightness, transparency and openness, But he is less interested in the destruction of frequently representing the location of the new, will inevitably cause some problems in when shortcuts are made across the grass. has happened with the GoMA building, with rather than solidity.” (Artlines 2/3 2006) reports in the news of its uncanny resemblance culture than the creation of a debate about most memorable work, if not simply the the running of the Gallery, not to mention Even if crossing can be an act of traumatic cultural value. As the artist says, the reason his biggest. With this year’s expansion to two the divvying up of departments and funds recollection, taking a “desire path” is a way for Following Butler’s line of argument, to the Copenhagen Opera building. GoMA this situates the Gallery’s curatorial model publicity has linked it to “Greek and Roman actions are powerful is “only because someone buildings however, the site feels a little empty, that can only be utilised in one building. each individual to be responsible for history, thinks it’s powerful and invests value in the a little cold, no longer the centre of attention. The chronological cut-off date of 1970 while ensuring a collective future. off-centre, or at least off-periphery: times” and Asia-Pacifi c styles. With its metaphorically in a kind of transparent overhanging roof, comparisons have also object”. If the vase he dropped was not a highly While there’s still a place in our hearts for it, has certainly limited, in theory if not yet in no-place, maybe even an every-place. Still, been made with the Lucerne Cultural and sought-after antique, his gesture would have our affections have shifted elsewhere. So there practice, the scope of future GoMA curatorial the debate stands that by curating a show Congress Centre, which, unlike GoMA, is little impact. Likewise in Painted Vases (2006) is something a little heartbreaking about Ai projects. And yet, these are not necessarily bad like this, there is an unavoidable burden of starkly at odds with a nearby medieval bridge the only reason the application of pastel- Weiwei’s chandelier, like the desperate attempt things. If these bumps cannot be smoothed representation, a knowable, sited “us” and and 19th-century district. coloured paint to 6-7000 year old neolithic of a jilted lover to recapture the attention of a over discreetly they should be revealed as such. a “them”. And despite Butler’s argument, earthenware vessels is of note, according to the partner’s wandering eye. The difference between Ai Weiwei’s painted To return to my starting quote from artist, is because we attribute value and power vases and the dropped urn is a case in point. the Gallery continues to select “signifi cant the great modernist architect, Frank Lloyd The chandelier’s refl ection in the works of art” because 70 percent of APT5 to what is otherwise just an object. The same water below doubles the image, splitting it, Ai Weiwei understands that any criticism Wright: a house “should be of the hill”. can be said of our response to a new building. has or will enter its collection. So the Gallery This certainly applies to GoMA, much distorting it. Ai Weiwei has said that when he may attract for his iconoclastic gestures is is, by default, thinking both historically and If we did not assign so much power to it, the something appears twice, which it frequently ultimately worthwhile because it allows him less so to the Lucerne Centre. GoMA’s question of value would hardly be raised. futuristically. ambitions in belonging to its environment does in his work, it is the “very beginning of to foreground the real motivation for his More intriguing, however, is to see what are expressed in terms of “transparency, The “value” of GoMA has been hotly division”. While this comment refers to both actions. It is his self-assuredness as an artist happens next for the APT and the triennial readability and openness to the city”. Let’s debated, with various price tags cited for Chinese philosophy and Ai Weiwei’s practice of and willingness to publicly embarrass himself as a model; to see whether APT5 could be take “transparency” out of that context for a its construction, infl ated claims of its splicing objects together, it also sheds light on that enables him to engage in a meaningful accused — for better or for worse — of being moment. It’s useful to defi ne it: articulated, international standing and institutional the splitting of the art gallery into two separate dialogue about cultural value. Once more I too uncentred or unfocused and consequently explicit, readable, see-through, clear, doesn’t rhetoric boasting seemingly unfulfi llable places. Are the twin pillars of QAG/GoMA hope QAG/GoMA would take a leaf out of his less iconic, despite the strength of individual stick out. Here, one can become bogged ambitions. But what is the connection representative of a pending cultural division book and use their institutional confi dence to works on display. down in metaphors, which are perhaps more between price and value? Let us look again at in Queensland? Or can they be seamlessly respond with the same kind of willingness to appropriate as images than words. There’s an Ai Weiwei’s Painted Vases. Recently acquired by integrated, like the objects in Ai Weiwei’s openly encourage criticism and debate, to tease Some might say GoMA’s relative the gallery, is their price tag a function of their sculpture? Is belief enough to see it through out and publicly discuss the successes, failures understatedness as a building (at worst its lack air of transparency hanging over APT5 and GoMA, and with this a slight foggy sensation. antique status, with however much extra tacked or does it require active manipulation? and issues that really count in the development of iconic punch) inspires the same response. on to account for their artistic modifi cation? of a culturally valuable institution. In very simple terms, at stake are a reframing It’s possibly an old feeling of trying to situate Ai Weiwei’s ability to masterfully mix the Ai Weiwei Dropping A Han Dynasty Urn 1995 oneself. How does one belong within this If so, doesn’t this mean Ai Weiwei is playing old and new ought to provide a blueprint for To return to our opening sentiment, if of history (and future), our consequent into the cultural value game he supposedly understandings of cultural interactions, landscape? The cliché that time will tell is apt the two galleries’ interaction. His fusion of museums are to continue being built instead here. GoMA already belongs, as does Stefan’s resists? Is it conceivable that he would sell the old (materials) and the new (form) are of torn down, to stay true to Ai Weiwei’s vision and the types of exhibition models that them for less than he originally paid for the tied up with destruction. Nietzsche once and GoMA are to co-exist, especially under a might subsequently arise. Despite talk of Skyneedle. So right there might be grounds not only immaculately executed, they adhere they must be joined with the old; maintaining said, “He who has to be a creator always has new directorship, the old and the new must be for another type of belonging — that at fi rst untouched antiques? Is it all about covering “in every detail to the very same moral and culture while radically reconfi guring it. And “dissolving” histories and centres, GoMA and costs? Or does “value” operate outside these to destroy.” In China, when one dynasty joined as one, if not physically then at least in APT5 belong to a particular moment in time, you have to stick out. Stefan Skyneedle, Brisbane structural principles of Chinese classical the audience must simply believe that it has succeeded the last, all indicators of the the minds of those who assign them value. concerns? Likewise, how do we reconcile construction”. The lack of integration of always been that way. Creation is ineluctably and in the future may well be seen as strong gallery cost with gallery worth? previous regime were destroyed. But if QAG Qin Ca The Miniature Long March (detail) 2002–5 statements of that time. Accessing Film Crossing Genres and Contexts Jon Bywater

ain on a video monitor is nothing Weir remembers an early encounter in central his video work in visual art contexts.” like rain on fi lm in a movie theatre. Sydney, downstairs in Martin Place. “He has also now attracted enormous RShanghai-based fi lmmaker and “Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law left me with a attention in the fi lm world, with two of artist Yang Fudong made the point, speaking feeling of the emotional and physical intensity his fi lms winning major prizes at Cannes. as part of a panel during the APT5 opening and potential of cinema. I remember all the Initially, though, it was one of those really weekend on the place of cinema in the art conversations I had about the fi lm afterwards, fortuitous encounters, with a fi lm that didn’t museum. the impact of its rhythm and use of music and receive a cinema release. Apichatpong sits in Asked about her own early and formative sound.” an interesting way in a fi lm program in an experiences of fi lm, Kathryn Weir, head of the Other early reference points for art museum, given how his work crosses over new GOMA Cinémathèque, agrees: “Images Weir were fi lmmakers who cross and mix between genres and distribution contexts.” like that, images that enliven the senses or established categories and boundaries: “Jean Is the combination of action fi lm and that awaken a memory of a bodily experience, Rouch, for example, playfully extends the art fi lm a ploy to draw people in? “I think in suggest what is most potent in the cinematic documentary genre into something that may some contexts that is useful in making people experience. If I think of particular fi lms that be improvised by actors playing themselves. rub up against things they would never usually have been powerful experiences for me, they Chronicle of A Summer, his portrait of Paris encounter, hopefully allowing them to be are often fi lms that bring the senses to life; during the Algerian War, takes off from a surprised. I think on the other hand, there or alternatively call into question sensory standard interview-based documentary style are some works that don’t lend themselves to experience.” and deviates from it in the kinds of interaction any particular commercial or populist angle. “The fi lms of expatriate Vietnamese and questions it includes.” In that case your published material has to give fi lmmaker Trinh T Minh-ha, for example, The APT5 programme includes high- an indication of just how extraordinary they use non-diegetic sound to denaturalise your profi le commercial fi lms by Jackie Chan, are, giving people the impetus to see them.” experience of both sound and image, so that alongside many much rarer fi lms. How did “It’s very important for a cinémathèque you then become much more conscious of Weir come across Apichatpong Weerasethakul, to provide good fi lm notes, and to circulate your viewing state and sensory apparatus. one of the seven featured fi lmmakers? them widely, to give broader audiences some They can effect the move from passive viewing “I fi rst saw his Mysterious Object At Noon openings beyond an unknown title and an to a more conscious interaction, an awareness unknown fi lmmaker’s name. You hope that of how you are receiving images and sound.” in 2000 at the Festival International du Documentaire, Marseilles, one of the more potential viewers will be hooked by some Trinh T Minh-ha’s experimental work is innovative documentary festivals – it includes aspect of what is written: fi lmnotes into which not likely to just turn up at the multiplex. Weir a lot of experimental fi lm. I saw it without you’ve written some of your passion.” encountered it when studying documentary knowing much about Apichatpong — it was fi lm. Peak cinema experiences are also his fi rst long-form fi lm — and I was quite available in a mainstream cinema context; astounded by it. And since then I have seen

Beck Cole Wirriya Small Boy (still) 2004

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 03 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 04

The Artreader Picks

A few of our favourite things…

eX de Medici Live The (Big Black) Dream 2005 eX de Medici Live The (Big Black) Dream Jess Campbell We are by now familiar with the unpacking of natural is meant to blow up in the politically conservative mind, history illustration and the rereading of memento mori after creeping in under the radar with its preciousness and vanitas. Recent writings about de Medici’s work and density of detail. It’s art as camoufl age — de Medici – including the essay in the APT5 catalogue – are also wants the conservative federal government out of power. familiar. The works supposedly play with art history in The works are sustained beacons of anger, attacks on the order to explore the broad themes of materialism and leisurely public who are fascinated and lured by her work. Anish Kapoor Untitled 1995 greed, and of evil and decay at the heart of beauty. So why They are fi lled with fury like nothing I’ve ever seen at Anish Kapoor Untitled is de Medici included in APT5? Cutting through the airy QAG. As an apocalyptic vision to inspire fear, an art of Holly Arden themes diagnosed in her work, there is a gutsy specifi city to rage sustained, they are a much-needed risk in this largely her assertions on two APT5 discussion panels that her art safe Triennial. The room of works by Indian/British artist Anish seem somewhat out of keeping. But this is a positive Jitish Kallat Public Notice (detail) 2003 Kapoor is a calming respite after the sensory and thing. Jitish Kallat Public Notice intellectual overload of APT5. Kapoor’s monumental Kapoor’s practice touches on aspects of modernism, Lily Hibberd forms are soothingly compared with the busyness going philosophy and spirituality and explores presence and on in the other galleries. There’s also perhaps that air absence, form and void, dark and light. The chance to Jitish Kallat’s Public Notice (2003) signals an action. A has died? What is Kallat mourning for? The work was of familiarity for viewers who’ve seen the blue concave see multiple Kapoors is powerful, though a real treat text is branded onto the mirrored surfaces of fi ve steel produced in total exasperation and loss of hope in the sculpture on long term display at QAG. This work, Untitled would have been a large-scale installation such as those panels. The words are those of the fi rst Indian Prime face of escalating sectarianism and bloodshed in the ten (1995), a red pigment-coated “void”, creates the illusion produced for London’s Tate Modern or Chicago’s Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, from his famous “Tryst years after the 1993 Mumbai bombings. that it’s tunnelling into the gallery wall; it’s displayed with Millenium Park. However, QAG/GoMA reportedly plans with destiny” speech. Delivered on the eve of India’s As a memorial Public Notice serves as a warning, a death two of Kapoor’s stone sculptures, a pigment installation, to unveil something more sizeable next year, a specially independence in 1947, this speech has resonated with notice to India. Although somewhat aestheticised, if we and another blue void, also wall-mounted. commissioned work as part of its 25th anniversary generations of Indians since, as a powerful oration of allow the mirror to do its job we might apprehend a kind Overt references to history and politics throughout celebrations. social justice and aspiration toward secular democracy of horror as the words sear and fi ssure, ripping apart our APT5 make Kapoor’s formalist, timeless-seeming works in the violent arena of decolonisation. Public Notice is a own refl ection. Yet, in the words of Nehru himself, “A symbol of promise, yet Kallat inscribes each letter in moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when fi re, burning the text in the way that fl ags and documents we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, are incinerated in riots and political demonstrations. In and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, fi nds an astute corelation between form and content, the fi ve utterance.” panels act as tombstones, the speech cremated. But who

Yuken Teruya Notice — Forest (detail) 2005 Yuken Teruya Notice – Forest Kris Carlon Yuken Teruya’s Notice — Forest (2005) is as enchanting and criticality within this work. Paradoxically, trees are as it is poetic. Trees are cut and folded out of shopping destroyed to contribute to our disposable society, and yet bags. Teruya engages in a kind of aesthetic replanting: the products of this disposability, in Teruya’s hands at least, transforming the detritus of consumer distraction into become precious objects. If this respect and admiration objects of aesthetic contemplation, while commenting were shown for the tree in its original incarnation, Teruya on the effects of our consumption. We can see a wit may not now have material to work with.

The Long March Project Logo For The Long March: A Walking Visual Display Tony Stephens It’s not one work, but an idea, a metaphor for life. Ironically, it’s not the work as it appears in GOMA No set structure, no set fi nishing point – just an idea that that begs attention (although it suits the scale of the gallery continues to evolve and reinvent itself, infl uenced by the that holds it), but rather the things you aren’t shown: the artists involved, the world and moments they inhabit, problems, failures, those bumps in the road, the things interwoven and inseparable. The Long March Project, that raise more questions than they answer – this is the made up of its various components, participants and dimension of the work, as articulated by Chief Curator Dinh Q Lê Damaged Gene (detail) 1998 incarnations, carries you on a journey with each of the Lu Jie, that reveals the true beauty of the Long March Dinh Q Le Damaged Gene artists, both personal, relating to the intimate, while at Project. Ai Weiwei Painted Vases 2006 Ulanda Blair Ai Weiwei Painted Vases the same time speaking to a collective experience. Dinh Q Le’s Damaged Gene (1998) began as a public congenitally-defective twin paraphernalia. Referencing Stella Brennan intervention in Ho Chi Minh City in August 1998. pop art’s commodifi cation of the art object and its space Handmade double-hooded jumpers, Siamese twin of consumption as well as relational practices of social I have no interest in that big Vegas-style chandelier, but Sculptors are inevitably collectors. We need to crowd dolls and two-teat dummies were sold to customers in a intervention, the technicolour Damaged Gene installation Ai Weiwei’s Painted Vases (2006) really get me. Polychromed our world with the stuff that is not just our material culture, in bracing acrylic colours, I like the cheery vandalism they but also our professional practice. But where to draw the Sutee Kunavichayanont Stereotyped Thailand market stall for the course of the month. Confronting is alluring, perverse, unsettling and poignant. In a (installation view) 2005-6 local audiences with the taboo subject of Agent Orange country still grappling with the psychological and physical represent. With these works it’s not the entropic shock of line between research and connoisseurship? How do you Sutee Kunavichayanont Stereotyped Thailand Kumar Shahani The Wave use during the American-Vietnam War and resulting impacts of the war, where heady Western-style capitalism irrevocable breakage, but a kind of improvement. The prevent yourself being throttled by your own good taste? birth defects, the work shifted from compassion into now thrives, Le’s installation thoughtfully confronts kind of thing that cash-strapped students do to tart up I’m always a sucker for an altered readymade, but there’s Ellie Buttrose Jon Bywater political action. post-traumatic realities, and their unspoken legacy for their thrift store fi nds; the kind of thing that experts on something different about Ai Weiwei’s use of beautiful and Sutee Kunavichayanont’s Stereotyped Thailand (2005-6) much about the writing and teaching of Thailand’s history Introducing his fi lm The Wave (1984), Kumar Shahani the dangers of fundamentalisms of any kind, are all visible In APT5, documentary footage of this event is the body, memory and environment. Antiques Roadshow always tut-tut about. Mutton dressed as ancient objects. In Painted Vases, submerging that auratic classroom, fi lled with 20 teak chairs with writing arms, as it is about another history: art history, and its claims to urged the audience not to try too hard to read the fi lm. in the fi lm. The power of Shahani’s fi lm, though, is presented alongside a shop-styled display of bizarre lamb. The notion of digging up some intact object made neolithic surface beneath a cheap and wipeclean acrylic presents itself as a place endowed with reason. Onto the truth. Like the multifaceted traces that the viewer makes “The basic thing is to enjoy it for what it is. Let it be and precisely in the way that while investigating dogmatism it for human use 6 or 7,000 years ago is a little mind- coat seems somehow tender. Pulled from their graves and writing arms, he engraved images of the stereotyped Thai from the engravings on the desks, the discussion around let yourself be.” His caution came after explaining that avoids being dogmatic, portraying neither a singular truth boggling, let alone something as elegant as these vases. But put on display, it’s nice to see they still have secrets. and the battle with the Western businessman, among Kunavichayanont’s work is a creative process facilitated by he made the fi lm inspired by the thinking of his friend, nor a nihilistic relativism. His story is fi rmly grounded in what of the weight of all this tradition, the ground heaving other things. It is from these reliefs that the engaged the piece itself. Diffi cult though it may be, the necessity of the historian D D Kosambi, whose Marxian approach to material conditions, but these include the complicating with antiquities? How to survive the crush of the old and student can create, through making crayon rubbings, arming oneself with the critical tools from which to seek history might suggest that we should try and systematise intricacies of sexuality and desire, and the power of myth. the drag of the new? their own image of Thailand. Stereotyped Thailand is just as out a position is what Stereotyped Thailand demands. the relations between the rich and poor, the Hindus and Never lecturing, he leaves his audience room to experience Muslims, the men and the women in the fi lm into some the action from a range of positions with their own values kind of grand illustration of rules that govern the progress and experience intact. of history. The lived suffering of class-reproduced inequalities, the hypocrisies of rich and poor alike, and

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 05 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 06

the world of the fi lm itself. JC controls his audiences by calculating their response to him and acting accordingly. Although previously shown in Sydney Famous Secrets and Aachen, Argonauts Of The Timor Sea, like A Trickster’s Guide to GoMA In many ways, this parallels the gallery many of Stevenson’s works, has a curious site- itself. GoMA has calculated its every move Stella Brennan specifi city. In the freshly reconfi gured QAG, it Ellie Buttrose with delicate regard to assumed audience is sited near a room of Fairweather paintings. response. Fixedly focused on accessibility, the erlin-based New Zealand artist sleeping bag on the footpath outside a However, no overt connections are made ackie Chan (or JC as his fans know viewer chooses to remain in the hectic darkness the viewer on loop. Yet, what is striking is narrative of how GoMA would be accessed was him) is never one to shy away from and wallow in the subject’s excess. that the GoMA installation marks an edge Michael Stevenson has a talent for Melbourne gallery in order to secure one of between the two installations. chronicled in advance. The opening weekend excavating aberrant examples, for his paintings). publicity. Through JC’s offi cial Studying an artfully choreographed scene to JC’s control: the curator directs this unfolded in neatly choreographed steps, and, B Central to Argonauts is Stevenson’s J taking sidebar stories and making them into website, one can purchase items from JC’s from The Young Master (1980), in which JC fi ghts performance. like JC’s spectacles, the dizzying nature of the After WWII, Fairweather returned to reconstruction of the raft, entitled The Gift. Its clothing label; nourish oneself with his the main event. His artworks connect seemingly Australia and settled on Bribie Island, just design is sourced from a vague sketch, while off an opponent with nothing more than a Alongside the excessive nature of the packed public program left no time for (nor disparate histories along avant-garde strands. skincare range; get personal with him by paper fan, the viewer’s mind wanders from artist, the productions and the installation, included) critical refl ection. This does not north of Brisbane. By the early 1950s, unhappy the techniques of its construction are based reading his blog, “A Note From Jackie”; or After a while it’s hard to extricate yourself with the increase of visitors to the island, he on those used by Hyderdhal. The raft’s three the ethics of violence towards an appreciation is JC’s ability to appeal to a global audience. evidence an institution that has no time to from the narrative intricacies the artwork track his movements with the latest JC news. of dance and art’s transcendent powers. His comic “everyman” allows the non- refl ect; rather, the refl ection happens out of left, ending up in Darwin, where he lived in fl oats are replicas of the original auxiliary Now, the JC experience climaxes with a shrine points toward, and the allegory becomes all- a shipwreck on the beach, sleeping during the air-fuel tanks scrounged by Fairweather. The Furthermore, the contrast of the white fan kung-fu audience to engage, while his public earshot, behind a guise of accessibility consuming. that celebrates his career, in the corner of fl oating through the air against JC’s rough- skillful performance pleases the devotee. An and openess. day and painting at night by candlelight. body of the raft is composed of miscellaneous Argonauts Of The Timor Sea (2004) takes as its timbers — bamboo, milled wood, charred logs, Brisbane’s newest monument. looking counterpart is visually delectable. accidental hero who fl outs the law without During the public opening, JC’s room The artist’s solo raft journey to Timor Stepping into GoMA’s JC room, one is diminishing its powers, JC appeals to both object Australian painter Ian Fairweather’s 1952 was made in 1952, when he was 61 years old. pieces with nails still sticking out of them, all Diverting from this specifi c excerpt, the was a popular spot for the crowd arriving to painstakingly bound together. The sail is cut bombarded with images and sounds of cars gaze is met at every direction by an image sides of the law. see Cornelius (Keigo Oyamada) perform. Norwegian Thor crashing, swords converging, chairs breaking Heyerdhal’s famous from a WWII parachute purchased on eBay. of JC in action. This curatorial placement During the media preview, Julie Ewington, Expensive alternative T-shirts and oblique In homage to popular anthropology, and the on heads and colliding fl esh. The viewer mirrors the way JC maintains an overarching head of Australian Art, described GoMA as a haircuts was the look of choice on that night. Kon Tiki expedition, dizzily stumbles through the installation. At a made fi ve years earlier, investigation of human origins inspiring both position in the production of his movies: basilica in which the cinema sits in the altar’s This is an audience that has seen more remixes Heyerdhal and Fairweather, the raft is propped moment where Chinese opera meets popular writing, directing, producing and starring place. Projected onto this new altar is JC’s face than originals — a slight change in pace from seems to have inspired Fairweather’s interest up on piles of National Geographic magazines. A fi lm, Buster Keaton meets Chris Tucker and in them. His excessive participation in these (and his many haircuts over the years). JC’s the private opening night when the space was Cornelius mime meets kung fu, the excess of noise, in migration routes video shows the construction of another version cinematic adventures, the length of his career place at the altar, however, is double edged, fi lled with VIPs ranging from politicians to of the raft, ropes being untwined, burning tar visuals, dialogue and fl ashing subtitles is hard in the movie industry and the over-the-top for he often plays the trickster. The trickster members of the art world elite. from Asia to Australia. Heyerdhal and crew had ladled onto the riveted seams of the aluminum to avoid. Rather than running to the escape characters he creates are projected back at deceives his audience as well as those within The public crowd transformed the opening exit in a claustrophobic frenzy, the fascinated travelled on a balsa log fl oats. It is a communal activity, with a group of night debate as to whether JC belonged in Through JC’s offi cial website, one can raft across the Pacifi c Sea Scouts aiding in the reconstruction. When the art museum into a discussion of whether from Peru to French the craft is complete, helpers push it into the YouTube accommodated better mash-ups of purchase items from JC’s clothing label; Polynesia. Fairweather water, and the artist inexpertly sails out. his work than the GoMA installation. Though constructed his craft A facsimile frontispiece to an Indonesian all must concede that the picture quality of the nourish ourselves with his skin care range; from driftwood and edition of Heyerdhal’s Kon Tiki book is framed gallery’s installation is better than anything items from the local in coconut wood. Two large maps hang in downloaded from YouTube, the installation get personal with him by reading his tip and gleaned his the space: one with Indonesian text indicates seems more like a tribute to the remixes of navigational skills from both the migration routes of early humans JC’s work than to JC himself. blog, “A Note From Jackie”; or track his the public library. He from South Asia to Australia and Fairweather’s Like JC, Cornelius belongs to a global stocked the raft with reverse journey; the other, in English, shows audience. One perceives another parallel movements with the latest JC news. food and water, and, ocean currents around Australia. In form and between JC and Cornelius, via the multiple after some perfunctory style, the works immaculately emulate maps roles each occupies in the creative process. Robert Walker Ian Fairweather Hut Series 1966 seaworthiness tests, on fi lled with the pink-shaded lands of Empire that Cornelius is a singer, producer, engineer the 29th of April, set hung in classrooms across the Commonwealth and musician. He also initiates collaborative gallery?” Murals, which generally grace the relationship to contemporary art (incidentally sail on the falling tide. around the time of Fairweather’s journey. War efforts with visual artists. Coinciding with the voyage from Darwin to Timor on a raft of his and Empire are imbedded in the installation: exterior walls, are now placed inside the white the topic of the opening weekend closed- own making. Stevenson’s seemingly loose and The raft sat low in the water, and release of his new album, the Sensuous Showcase door symposium), it should be open to Fairweather began to develop sores from Fairweather’s original raft was constructed spectacle consisted of a light show, video cube. Popular music and fi lm, that tended to underexplained collation of objects emulates cohort with commercial venues, now lie at the now-common technological possibilities for the constant immersion. He continuously largely of scraps from the Pacifi c War, during projection and live performance by Cornelius a museological display, with its photographs, which Darwin was repeatedly bombed by the heart of this public building. As the interior showcasing art. framed prints, vitrines of ropey ephemera, ran repairs, struggling with rudder and sail, and a three-piece band, played to a crowd anxious to avoid bypassing Timor entirely and Japanese. unfazed by the sensory bombardment. models itself as the exterior, the crowd that To dismiss JC’s GoMA installation video documentation and reconstructions. His was once considered outside artistic concerns as foolish is to succumb to the art of the objects, while fi nely wrought, are deliberately being swept to his death in the Indian Ocean. Stevenson’s title is derived from Bronislaw On stage, donning stiff-collared moves in. trickster. If the viewer is duped, the trickster’s gauche, seeming to belong in a social history Storms and huge seas battered the craft, and Malinowski’s Argonauts Of The Western Pacifi c, a matching shirts and Beatles-revisited haircuts, GoMA — a space that has apparently performance of inhabiting reality as the fool is museum, something a little more hokey and his sail was shredded. The salt spray, bright book which famously brought anthropologists Cornelius’ band played in a space that was once a success. To affi rm the trickster’s performance hands-on than the pristine art gallery. constant light and lack of sleep addled his “down off the verandah” and turned them the home of silent cerebral refl ection, now left other galleries in the 20th century Michael Stevenson The Gift 2004-6 — is equipped with vast galleries that can as such is to critically engage with it and thus perceptions. Followed by sharks, Fairweather into the participant-observers we know today. the Festival Hall’s replacement. Cornelius’ Like the Triennial that frames it, tied his legs around the mast to avoid rolling Marcel Mauss’ text, The Gift, is a keynote, accommodate any scale and contemporary free oneself from the trickster’s complicated Stevenson’s work investigates connections whole performance was choreographed as web of deceit. Dismissing the JC installation off into the water. an anthropological classic on exchange in made to exemplify or stand in for. attempt to incorporate the forms of knowledge, impeccably as a JC fi ght scene. Every beat medium. The 21st century (outside the gallery across the Pacifi c, examining the nature and altered pots, between Stevenson’s work and space) is fi lled with webcasts and podcasts. as mere popular spectacle is to miss one of the After 16 days at sea he ran aground on a reef traditional communities. Fairweather himself Art museums, unlike artists, aren’t allowed while missing the content. matched the video editing of the projection direction of traffi c, problematising both the often lived amongst the locals, dwelling outside Fairweather’s paintings (which are presented in best works in APT5 and to betray one’s own misapplication of western models onto non- off the island of Roti, at the south-westernmost to make up artworks and artefacts that they What about the reverse gesture? What behind the band — as lips warped on-screen, The opening night performance by Talvin critical faculty. the cash economy and forsaking colonial something called a room that is really a series of Singh could have been streamed online via western practices, and the reverse.Argonauts also tip of Timor. Initially suspicious of the lack, although curators interpolate, borrow does it mean to paste a Greek myth onto notes warped off-screen. Cornelius and his bedraggled stranger, locals took him in and privileges. When short of funds, he painted with partitions dissolving out into the larger hang of band became mere fl ickers in memory as the APT5 website, YouTube-style; podcasting obliquely addresses Australia’s contemporary contemporaneous Australian paintings). and wheedle. Many of Stevenson’s objects are the early humans who travelled the same fed him while he recuperated, appropriating cheap improvised materials on unconventional not what they fi rst seem — contemporaneous waters as Fairweather? Heyerdhal’s journey is stage lights fl ashed at an epileptic rate. The would have expanded and diversifi ed access and historical territorial anxieties: nowadays surfaces (making his works a nightmare for With this porosity in mind, how does to Cornelius’s performance; and both refugees traveling from Indonesia reenact his craft in exchange for their care. Although news clippings are painstakingly hand-drawn remembered, but his politically shady theories sounds of drums, bass and Theremins fi lled offered passage back to Australia, he refused, museum conservators). His great journey from Stevenson’s raft relate to a cabinet of inkwells the space, wafting up to the heights of Eko performances were itching to be assumed Fairweather’s perilous journey in the opposite to look like poor quality photocopies. A of an Aryan race entering the Pacifi c via South and was deported to England, working as a Darwin to London was achieved almost entirely and centrepieces made of emu eggs and silver, version of Mauss’ book is rendered as a carved America are not as well recalled. This year Nugroho’s mural, It’s All About The Destiny! Isn’t into a variety of spaces via the prolifi c DVD direction. without monetary expenditure. a hair-fi lled mourning brooch adorned with phenomenon (with accompanying stickers ditch digger to pay off his fare. He eventually box. It resembles the replicas and ritual objects Heyerdhal’s grandson set off from Tahiti in a It? (2006). Something of a local hero, who spent returned to Australia, where he resumed his Unusually, Fairweather lived a secluded a golden goanna, or a sideboard with carved designed by fellow APT5 artists). decades living and working in Queensland, of cargo cults, objects that have the shape and raft named after Tangaroa, Maori god of the As the music drifted towards the door, hermit life on Bribie Island, remaining there life on the borders of Western society, but pineapples and kangaroos; a series of bark weight of their western models, but spring sea. Who is re-enacting whose mythologies? so did the question, “What belongs in an art If GoMA is concerned with the audience’s Fairweather’s biography is a complex one. Born from 1953 until his death in 1974. was accepted into the mainstream artworld. shields or a stained-glass window emanating in Scotland, he attended the Slade School in from a completely different understanding, A news-wire favourite (although the artist Fairweather’s engagement with the cultures he its own light? His weird but highly considered from attempts to explicate the mysteries of Jackie Chan New Police Story (San Ging Chaat Goo Si) (still) 2004 London, where he was a successful student. visited and his ability to be both exterior to the accretions point outward to all the other Combatant and prisoner in both World Wars, refused to sell his story), multiple accounts of modernity using traditional logics. The carved his journey exist in newspapers and magazines of contemporary Australian artworld, yet clearly carefully layered objects and the stories they are book enacts this cultural misrecognition; an many of his adult years were spent wandering involved in it, raises questions of centres-and- peripheries brought to light by the Triennial’s Asia-Pacifi c focus. At a time when Australian artists were shipping off to the cultural centres Combatant and prisoner in both World Wars, of Europe, Fairweather was making a quite The Long March Project many of Ian Fairweather’s adult years were different journey. Whether this can provide another model is a question that Stevenson, with his faux-primitive sculptural objects, Ulanda Blair spent wandering through Asia, living at various raises, but does not settle. times in China, Borneo, Bali and Ceylon. Unlike in earlier APTs, in APT5 there is he Long March Project is a contemporary visual culture, and begins a system, it becomes increasingly problematic little overt branding distinguishing the special nebulous creature. If one were dynamic rewriting of Cold War art history. when localised into specifi c contexts. exhibition from the collection hangs. Indeed to try describe it in a nutshell, much of the work in APT5 has already been T For Lu Jie, global market forces have The Long March Project attempts to the time. Heroic and foolhardy, inevitably the purchased. The install is an accretion. The one might say it is an ongoing and mobile come to drive artistic production and translate the local through the metropolis through Asia, living at various times in China, “exhibition about exhibitions”, although this Borneo, Bali and Ceylon. Painting wherever voyage infl ects subsequent readings of his work displays show long arcs of curatorial interest theoretical debates in the Chinese context. into the international arena and, at the same — a certain freedom and gravity is detected in and intent. In GoMA, key works from previous isn’t even the half of it. Part curatorial project This phenomenon has seen a surfeit of time, transmit international art discourses he went, he was repeatedly ejected by colonial and part collective action, and involving both authorities for living too closely with the native his post-1952 paintings. His never adequately APTs hang in galleries above the current APT, supposedly representative contemporary back into the local sphere. explained adventure has been interpreted like ancestors in the rafters. At QAG there material and cultural capital, the initiative Chinese art fl ood the biennial circuit, whilst peoples of the regions he visited. largely focuses on the relationship between As a periodic journey-in-progress, The as both a Zen act of self-abandonment and is bleed between the collection (augmented an incalculable number of artists and practices Long March Project has already involved Despite his nomadic and often ascetic retrospectively recuperated as a performance by loans from other institutions, including artistic creation and interactive reception in that do not fi t into the elitist and mainstream existence, he exhibited regularly. In Australia contemporary exhibition culture. more than 100 artists in its re-staging of of physical endurance in the spirit of 1970s Fairweather’s Bathers In Bali from the Tate Gallery international narrative of “contemporary” are Mao Zedong’s epic Long March of 1934–5. his work was popular amongst a small but artists Chris Burden and Bas Jan Ader (whose in London) and the APT installations. There is Conceptualised in 1999 by Chief Curator disregarded. The participants are well on their way to re- passionate cognoscenti (there is a later tale of own boat never reached shore). a blur between the historical Chinese ceramics Lu Jie and hitting the road in 2002, The Contemporary artists and curators create tracing the original 6,000 mile South–North critic Robert Hughes spending the night in a shown in conjunction with Ai Weiwei’s Long March Project promotes direct dialogue and curate according to what they believe is route, and numerous exhibitions, public art about contemporary art, facilitating exchange “contemporary”, which seemingly involves projects, performances, forums, screenings, and collaboration between artists, curators, questions of national culture, immigration, book readings and multimedia projects have critics and isolated communities in China. cultural mobility, increasing displacement, taken place at historically signifi cant sites. In the process, it also revisits the memory and the dissolution of boundaries — the lingua of the Chinese revolution and re-examines By inviting an international and national franca of “globalisation”. Whilst this narrative audience to collaborate with and experience the near-mythic status of the historic Long might be suffi cient to represent the current March. It analyses the impact of socialism on fi rst-hand Chinese communities — that is, to development of art in the international look from the outside-in and to re-examine monolithic interpretations of Chinese art — The Long March Project presents a constructive alternative to rigid binary constructions of international and local, traditional and contemporary. Furthermore, by presenting both Chinese and foreign contemporary art to the regional masses, and collecting their interpretations of the old and new Long March, the project is a dynamic act of recovering historical consciousness.

Wang Wenhai Mao Zedong And Mao Zedong 2003 Robert Walker Ian Fairweather Track Series 1966

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 07 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 08

THE ARTREADER: APT5 COMPANION is the product of the APT5 Writers Workshop. It was published by Artworkers Alliance and the Institute Provocations & Propositions of Modern Art, Brisbane. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers. PUBLISHERS: In his APT5 catalogue essay Ross Tony Stephens, CEO, Artworkers Alliance, and Robert Leonard, Director, Jackie Chan occupies a large Gibson talks about how “politics are poised How does a sense of destiny inform Institute of Modern Art. gallery on the second fl oor of the GoMA in our emotions”, and “how art work can the APT? Director Doug Hall borrowed EDITOR: Cinémathèque. A multitude of screens be a catalyst instigating change”. This is the title of Eko Nugroho’s mural It’s All Lee Weng-Choy, Artistic Co-Director, The Substation, display Chan action scenes. It looks not far from an argument made by art About The Destiny! Isn’t It? (2006) for his Singapore. fantastic and the accessibility of the work is theorist Amelia Jones in her recent book introductory catalogue essay. Nugroho’s WRITERS: unquestionable; the room is full of people. Body Art: Performing The Subject. Jones claims work seems to problematise the future, Holly Arden is an independent artwriter and co-editor of MACHINE, a APT5 is staged in just two spaces, However, with Chan taking up all the space that the wound embodied by performance asking the viewer, asking Queensland, Brisbane-based visual arts magazine. QAG and GoMA. For an exhibition provided for video installation, works by art, or more specifi cally body art, offers who will you become? Hall, on the other Ulanda Blair is an independent that concerns the interaction between artists such as the amazing Apichatpong a new model of political agency. Both of hand, in some way answers the question. It artwriter and Gallery Coordinator, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, the global and the local, there is little Weerasethakul (who works in both fi lm these academics suggest that through the is less an indication of uncertainty than a Melbourne. exchange, collaboration, or alternative arts and video installation) have been isolated re-enactment of an actual or emblematic sign of arrival at a destination. To be fair, Stella Brennan is an Auckland-based and community involvement. Queensland to limited programming on the cinema injury, audiences sense or embody the idea Hall seems fully cognisant of the dangers writer, curator and artist. Her video WHITE WALL/BLACK HOLE, about the artists are absent, and other than Eko screen. In terms of access, anyone anytime The Cinémathèque aims to explore of pain and its ensuing horror, inciting of being self-congratulatory. Is the non- 1979 Erebus Disaster, was included in Nugroho’s mural project and some short can go down to their local video store and “important lines of infl uence between the an urgent conviction to change. This is confronting nature of APT5 in part due this year’s Sydney Biennale. Ellie Buttrose is a Brisbane-based artists talks, there has been no facilitation rent a Jackie Chan fi lm, and yet APT5 is moving image and other areas of visual a compelling argument. But an ethical to a sense of arrival rather than a sense of By being framed, by default if not artwriter. of in-depth exchange and dialogue the only chance that most would ever get to culture”. But apart from the cinema dilemma remains: to represent another’s looking into an unknown future? How do deliberately, as representative of the Jon Bywater is a writer from Aotearoa between visiting international artists and see Weerasethakul’s astonishing installation program, there were few moving image suffering is not the same as to experience works in APT5 anticipate or think about region, are APT5’s artists presented as a New Zealand. He teaches at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of the local arts community. work. works in APT5. it. The victim is not offered a choice. the future? canon of Asia-Pacifi c art for Australia? Auckland. Jess Campbell is a Brisbane writer and artsworker. APT5 sits in opposition to the Delaying APT5 to coincide with the APT5 brings the general public Although it is enjoyable to see Jackie If QAG is going to curate an Asia- With all the talk about cultural Kris Carlon is the other co-editor recent proliferation of expansive and opening of GoMA shifted a large amount inside the gallery but does not attempt to Chan’s work, how much does he really Pacifi c Triennial entirely in-house, sameness and difference, “us and them”, of the Brisbane-based magazine contribute to contemporary art, or even then shouldn’t they recruit permanent certain works in APT5 make one think MACHINE. self-consciously chaotic exhibitions of audience focus onto the building itself. bring art into public space. Considering Lily Hibberd is an artist and founding that refl ect the rhizomatic expansion that Kurilpa Point is acknowledged as a to fi lm? If this is a celebration of Jackie curatorial staff from outside Australia, in anew about “our” section, the “Australian” Editor of UNMAGAZINE, Melbourne. of global computer networks, post- historically important site and considering Chan’s career (and Director Doug Hall’s Asia and the Pacifi c? Although there is one. In Stephen Page’s Kin (2006), the DESIGNER: industrial systems of exchange and the way the GoMA architects emphasised catalogue essay says as much), what is the obviously a lot of specialised knowledge young Indigenous Australian performers Tom Everingham curatorial rationale? already in the QAG, an even closer break out into an African-American ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: the interconnectedness of urban location, it would be great to see the area Romy Willing conglomerations. In an international around the building utilised in future relationship with artists in Asia would style rap after criticising rock legends THANKS TO: artworld inundated with the amnesiac APTs. benefi t the APT. Led Zeppelin. By the same token I Amelia Gunderlach barely recognised the way of life of the Jacqueline Schneider elements of mobility, glamour and capital, THE ARTREADER is made possible APT5 affi rms the beauty of what might Aboriginal child in Beck Cole’s Wirriya through the support of the following be called “slow art”– art that expresses a Small Boy (2004). Page and Cole offer sponsors: nostalgia for a slower pace of life enriched good examples that show the shakiness of by deeper human contact. categories like “Australian”.

Around the Table with The Artreader One of the joys of the APT is all the Eurocentric story”, or any other grand of centre or grand narrative means for QAG My criticisms of the APT5 are perhaps a In terms of political “messages” reaching conversation around the art. Typically, narrative constructed around that discipline’s and its collecting policy. sign of my high expectations of it, a slightly viewers, fi lm and performance are arguably newspapers and magazines cover major favourite fi ction “infl uence”, and then APT5’s marketing and media roundabout compliment to the show. the more successful media than painting or exhibitions with a single writer reporting concludes that “with the demise of the old communications have repeatedly and proudly HOLLY ARDEN: I’m not so sure I’d call installation. Having said that I felt a strong on the whole show. The Artreader, however, history ... there is no history to tell at all”. reiterated that 70% of the works in APT5 are APT5 “safe”. Yes, some of the works’ political connection with Anish Kapoor’s work. I’d comprises a team of nine individuals with Is he suggesting that history is a concept that now owned by QAG. The museum is, in fact, force is lost because they are presented as argue that in some ways APT5 requires slightly distinct voices, in conversation. We think should be abandoned altogether? exerting its traditional privilege of selecting remainders of encounters rather than being more of the viewer than APT4. It’s more of an it’s important to emphasise the role of In the context of a newspaper, the Courier- important and signifi cant works of art. If the conversation in encounters with art in general, Mail, it’s not clear what his reasons for this APT5 felt safe, I think the problem lies in and with APT5 and GoMA in particular. rhetoric might be. He explains to readers the intimacy between QAG’s collecting and So we convened this roundtable. The Artreader that culture is such that there is “no overall its exhibitions. Perhaps QAG is hedging its has grown out of conversations we’ve had perspective that it composes or that we can bets, exhibiting and collecting works from among ourselves, and with artists, curators, impose on it”, but curiously, this description various regions, of diverse persuasions, as other writers and audience members. This is presented with the implication that it might long as they are not too explicitly polemical or roundtable represents those exchanges. be a sign of the times, not simply a more controversial. I would have liked to have seen LEE WENG-CHOY: I’ve heard people adequate way to describe how things have more politics in APT5. say that APT5 does not have a theme, that always been. The ideas Rex is drawing on JESS CAMPBELL: If APT5 is not it doesn’t make any gestures toward a grand surely don’t preclude the telling of history, political in any up-front way, maybe it is narrative, doesn’t have a centre. I’m not or the possibility of things being coherent. more than just the collecting policy. It is a sure if this is accurate. Perhaps the white They redefi ne how coherence can be best conscious choice to present political art that cube mentality is still in operation here, by understood, and who gets to do the telling. be “generous and generative”, something default, if not deliberately. Anyhow, rather On the one hand, I agree – the exhibition “that gives rather than accuses”, as expressed than debate the centre, or the missing centre, and its presentation does “add up”, and for by Ross Gibson in his catalogue essay. it’s more interesting to consider the many that matter still seems somewhat Eurocentric, The lack of a narrative might be seen as stories told in APT5 and GoMA. And I think in the sense that the didactic panels, the these stories do add up to something. There an act of generosity towards the audience, a selection of works and so on, address fi rst an willingness to engage people fi rst aesthetically is a sense, not just of accumulation, but of a English-speaking white Australian audience. common wealth, even if one might not be able and then intellectually, to refuse to accuse. On the other hand, APT5 is also clearly At the same time I think these works are the to give a single fi gure to represent what it all refl exive about this, and so the stories being amounts to. easiest for the public to swallow, and this may told are related in a way that shows they are inform the collection policy! KRIS CARLON: What do you mean located provisional stories. It’s diffi cult to diagnose whether QAG’s exactly by a “common wealth”? I can appreciate There’s another angle to this. If Rex the pun, but are you saying that what we all “generosity” ultimately allows the institution Butler is stuck on the “lack of a centre”, then to fi nd a safe place from the criticism that have in common is valuable to each and every the connection I’d like to make between this one of us, or that the accumulation of diverse many works do not confront or challenge the lack of centre and a sense of things adding audience. stories creates something of value to everyone? up is the opposite conclusion: that locality is Or are we talking about the “common” in precisely what becomes emphasised. The works ELLIE BUTTROSE: I believe APT is terms of accessibility? in APT5 are left to articulate their diverse able to host politically hot works. But, the LILY HIBBERD: It’s enough that we localities indirectly, without there being any safe option has been taken on this occasion: come to artworks each wearing our own explicit unifying curatorial statement. the inauguration of a new building, the end Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane pair of spectacles, without having to try of Doug Hall’s reign. Having gotten past the HOLLY ARDEN: Jon, I think that Rex opening, I think there exists a real possibility overt politics – in the sense Ross Gibson gives on a whole lot of other frames to get the does propose that the APT is a distinctly expected political commentary — on China “appropriate” insight. I agree with Weng, it’s for GoMA and APT to become more political. and Communism, for example — there was it, of “delivering messages” – is that a lot of ahistorical project, and that this is perhaps the But as the possibility of what could be arrives, the work actually works better as art, then I’m impossible to reduce the experience of APT5 only way forward for the exhibition. This is a little of political note. to a defi nitive idea. My concern is with the so too does the possibility that it will not be not complaining. The fact that there is a lot sign of the times, paradoxically, of course. I’m — that it will remain guarded rather than Certainly nothing of what we might expect of really great-looking work in APT5 (ah! the audience’s attention span and the tendency interested in the links and tension between from a show that openly courts the political. towards generalisation. APT5 employs an generous. If the APT is going to solidify its simple pleasures!) is incredibly welcome in the locality and its absence (and not just in APT5 place as a leading Australian voice in the Asia- And where was the tension between works, face of so much painfully tedious “political expansive approach by default, emphasising but in GoMA itself). Both are in operation practices and ideologies? In the scramble to get that viewers will draw their own conclusions, Pacifi c region, it must critically engage and art” that has very little “art” about it. in the Gallery’s rhetoric: the building is for present political art. everyone to play together nicely, the benefi ts but the risk here is that without some the “Queenslander of the future”. Maybe a of confl ict, both aesthetic and intellectual, STELLA BRENNAN: In terms of affect clear position, conventional cultural and certain “common wealth” can prevail, and Not only was there a lack of local content, Stephen Page Kin 2006 / Clockwise from left: Curtis Walsh-Jarden, Sean Page, Ryan Jarden, Hunter Page-Lochard, Samson Page, Isileli Jarden and Josiah Page were conspicuously absent. and effi cacy, I think some of the sense of historical assumptions may not be suffi ciently there was also a noticeable absence of female safety has to do with the exhibition spaces. because, as Rex writes: “there is no longer any Take Adrian Martin’s playful but fi tting challenged. way for the museum to exercise its traditional and Pacifi c artists. APT5 relied a little heavily In GoMA particularly, the galleries have very on the Pacifi c Textiles Project to boost their ULANDA BLAIR: Certainly there Given how few of us in Australia are little to force local audiences to engage with outburst at one of the cinema forums that JON BYWATER: I was surprised by the privilege of selecting important or signifi cant attendances and the international exposure high ceilings, with lower moveable walls; huge numbers. Perhaps in this show the silenced are multiple ways that the political can be completely fl uent in any more than one or two larger political debate. everyone was being too nice, that art galleries spaces with long sightlines. This works well undercurrent of nostalgia for a dominant story works of art”. Maybe this allows for a greater that the APT customarily attracts. should be pulling apart cinema and that that seemed to show through in Rex Butler’s richness of experience. voices scream the loudest, telling us not about mobilised in contemporary art, the “generous cultures, should we not consider how the most Gordon Hookey or Richard Bell would for some pieces, like Eko Nugroho’s knowing their own stories but about the way in which and generative” being one. However, if localised politics of all have been framed? not have been so generous! eX de Medici is KRIS CARLON: I agree entirely. I cinema should be trying to destroy the art mural on the vast entry wall, It’s All About The Courier-Mail review (“The Shock Of The New” ULANDA BLAIR: I appreciated APT5’s gallery. A sentiment that was then met with a publicly-funded institution operates in the Masami Teraoka McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan/Chochin-me 1982 APT5 mostly takes an intellectual rather Notwithstanding the fi lm and performance probably the most overtly political of the saw “politics” splashed around a lot in print Destiny! Isn’t It?, an enormous fl oating robot 4 December 2006). He closes his piece with lack of an overt overarching theme. The agreeable support from the panellists. It the image of the new building as being “like a contemporary global world. Regardless of than “sensational” approach, and if the program, I think that local political issues local artists included, and in confronting and heard it mentioned out loud a number scribble looming over the foyer space. cacophony of voices and stories did, for me, of times, but never really saw it manifest. would seem it was near impossible to incite Rubik’s Cube that no one knows how to put whether a biennial, triennial or expo frames intelligibility and affective capacity of some are largely avoided in APT5. The Indigenous the sinister currents adrift in Australia she is But it makes it very hard for many works amount to an enriching liberating exhibition such encounters themselves. Ross Gibson works are somewhat undermined by both I’m talking here not just about the public political debate at APT5! back together again”, as if something that was itself around a grand narrative or a lack of argues that “feeling” is necessary to successful intellectual show than the last one, which perhaps content of the exhibitions by Djambawa one to engage her audience fi rst aesthetically to really gain traction. In terms of stuff that experience, although paradoxically I think this one, the problem of representation remains. had a stronger focus on sensation. I think this is their documentary format and by the diverse Marawili and Dennis Nona raise questions program, which was by and large misleading The connection I’m making between once neatly solved has been messed up. diversity of voices was in itself too resolved, political art, and because one was only able to and then intellectually. Yes, it is an effective really grabbed me, I was particularly impressed The only consolation is that by making their a strong gesture on the Gallery’s behalf, though cultures and histories being represented, then about the art market and translatability, but, affective technique. Overall however, local (with many panels addressing individuals’ politics, confl ict and debate is perhaps too From his art historian’s point of view, too predictable. Beyond this, though, I think access these original encounters through their practices rather than the topic at hand), with the Jackie Chan display. The dark room absence known there will be some attempt to I’m not sure if it necessarily makes for a more what about local politics and local artists in the in the face of ongoing European/Indigenous politics seem conspicuously absent in the obvious, and extends far beyond this particular was comparatively small. The rapid movement he observes the obvious absence of any “old we need to consider what the purported lack documentation, I defi nitely found some of the exhibition program of the APT5? but also in the work itself. Apart from the grapple with the silenced at the next APT. feeling was lost. interesting or successful show. tensions in Australia, their inclusion does APT5, and this is disappointing given the high discussion. But if the consequence of a lack of on many screens and (continued on p.9)

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 09 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 10

Round table Continued… Syndromes and a Century Hip-Hop at APT5 Jon Bywater Jon Bywater projections, the thuds, crashes and dramatic theme tunes emanating from all around, he two opening-weekend traditions to contemporary art practices. for the way they look. So when Urale distanced made it seem like some kind of monomaniacal programmes of indigenous and Urale’s documentary suggested several further herself from some of her interviewees, it video arcade. The abundance of imagery also Pacifi c spoken word and hip-hop, affi nities between hip-hop and Maori and wasn’t hard to guess who was the least to be gave Chan’s work, and the argument that the T Represent Volume I + II, took their title from a Pacifi c Island cultures. approved of. Her one interview with a gangsta curator was making about it, a density (and it’s core value of hip-hop culture. As a couple of rapper, though, brought home vividly the all about the density, isn’t it?). It was totally In their interview, Auckland MCs Otis the popular defi nitions on Urban Dictionary and Slave noted that hip-hop is a working idea of representing. South Auckland MC enveloping. I always like it when an installation have it at the moment, to “represent” is to Ermehn posed for the shoot with “his boys”, works on my peripheral vision. class form. As they put it, it’s about getting “show respect to where you come from”, or as much as possible from the least resources. drinking beer on a motorway overbridge in JESS CAMPBELL: I agree with Stella to “lend physical presence or voice on behalf Christchurch and now Auckland-based MC the morning sunlight. He was clear about his about the scale of some of GoMA’s spaces. of a constituency defi ned by geography or Ladi6 emphasised that hip-hop goes beyond ambition to show respect for his community, Those big galleries don’t lend themselves purpose”. (www.urbandictionary.com) music into lifestyle. In the QAG foyer, the perhaps even making money through music to to immersive installations. They seem to The musical form may be American, but audience members who were there specially keep his friends from crime. cater primarily to paintings and sculptures. as the Wellington rapper KOS points out in to hear Indigenous Intrudaz bore this out, Alongside the Pacifi c Textiles exhibit and Although the architects have provided data the Sima Urale television piece on hip-hop in conspicuous in their particular ways of the Jackie Chan room, the Represent platforms points throughout those huge galleries, so Aotearoa New Zealand in the Cinémathèque wearing their hoodies and sneakers. Auckland were one of APT5’s boldest moves in its walls could be built wherever needed for video programme, it’s not as if classical music, jazz veteran DLT was eloquent on camera about increasingly nuanced approach to extending projections, it won’t be possible to achieve a or rock’n’roll were dreamed up in someone’s the appeal of hip-hop to people with urban the category of “contemporary art” to things sense of closeness without lowering the roof! bedroom in Dunedin either. After the hybrid identities, how at base it is about an not in some kind of conversation with the KRIS CARLON: While I think the opening weekend screening, Urale confessed aesthetic identifi cation: “When you can’t help dominant currents of contemporary visual various criticisms of APT5 as “safe and nice” that she hadn’t known much about hip-hop eyeing the graffi ti art, when a breakbeat moves art from Europe and North America. But it are well justifi ed, I can also appreciate that before working on the commission, but she you”, he explained, “you’re in, it’s yours.” was poised uneasily between crowd-pulling this was undoubtedly the worst possible time was clear about the relevance of her piece in Necessarily, the version of hip-hop entertainment for the opening and content to curate such a show. The infl ux of new staff, the context of the APT, that it shows “where that got the event’s sanction was wholesome worthy of discussion in the catalogue. Bringing the refurbishing of the old gallery and the some of our Pacifi c young people are at”. by comparison to the North American such commercial and popular practices into construction of the new, increasingly long The offi cial publicity acknowledged mainstream. On the afternoon stage of Local the discussion effectively will require more hours and rising stress levels, and god knows the connection between hip-hop and Indigenous Performance, even Cairns R’n’B curatorial investment. what other undisclosed dramas — it’s hard “the importance of oral storytelling in duo Shakaya’s version of Destiny’s-Child-style to imagine a worse case scenario for putting Apichatpong Weerasethakul Syndromes And A Century (still) 2006 Indigenous Australian and Pacifi c Islander glamour included a little feminism, not just together a show such as this. cultures”, and framed the programs as a in their assertive sexuality but in their track Especially when the context practically demonstration of the relationship of those reminding sisters not to put one another down demands that it be signifi cantly bigger and n orchid collector is selling a rare monk may be a reincarnation of a younger recurrent theme. better than anything prior. So in many ways, Pacifi c Textiles Project (installation view) 2006 Jackie Chan New Police Story (San Ging Chaat Goo Si) (still) 2004 wild species that glows in the dark. brother who died in an accident he feels he was The doctors’ use of English to name, the fact that it came together at all, let alone A dentist moonlights as a prize- responsible for. coherently enough to be considered “nice” A for example, “carbon monoxide poisoning”, winning luk thung (Thai country music) The shyness of the characters doesn’t locates the offi cial medical system as part of a is in itself a major achievement. With such a crooner. A Buddhist monk once dreamed widespread and critically engaged audience prevent them from being honest about their knowledge system not completely of that place. of being a radio DJ. These are some of the affections, and is in turn treated affectionately When an alcoholic older haematologist attempts watching, many undoubtedly with claws at the vivid characters Apichatpong Weerasethakul ready, it could have been much much worse. by the fi lmmaker. The evident humour in a chakra cleansing on the youth retarded by works into his new fi lm Syndromes And A Century. people’s awkwardness is never pushed to make carbon monoxide poisoning, we are poised to So in some respect I can forgive a large If any syndrome unites them, it is the various the lack of sophistication seem anything other interpret this lapse into unscientifi c treatment number of my initial misgivings about behaviours of caring about things. The than universal and human. as a corollary of her drinking, only to discover the show and curb my usual willingness to dreamlike pace of the fi lm itself, too, follows A word from the fi lm’s English title, that her sober colleague has already tried the QAG-bash (being the cultural sport that it and coheres around logics of desire. exact same cure. is). Although on the other hand, I can’t help “syndrome”, also resonates with the way The fi lm’s central protagonists, a female that the second half of the fi lm – based in a In the context of the APT, the fi lm speaks but want more from our state institution. I doctor and a male doctor, are based on say want, not expect, because we already know contemporary urban hospital – is patterned of a recognition that the “other” is a relational Weerasethakul’s mother and father, and by reworking several scenes from the fi rst. The rather than an absolute category. The film’s there is little or nothing we as an audience stories of their lives before they met. The film can do to alter the course of the QAG/GoMA cycling of events in the fi lm connects with the optimism and anti-exoticism about the is structured in two halves, each centred on a many mentions of the idea of reincarnation. mixing of cultures might remind us that what juggernaut, despite a wealth of “public different hospital and one of the two young accessibility” rhetoric to the contrary. In each half, the same venerable monk, is truly other is just as much what seems most doctors. familiar. But I can’t help but hold out hope that with his two assistants, tries to get a doctor to The fi rst half is set in a rural institution, prescribe medicines for other people as well The juxtapositions of traditions and the new gallery really does signal an opening where a female doctor is the object of a up of the institution to perspectives like those as himself. Each time the old man eventually the characters’ quirks are presented in a colleague’s clumsy crush. When he suddenly proffers a traditional remedy — a bag of dried way that makes them seem very real. Indeed, shared here, and that it not only considers proposes to her, she begins to tell him the them worthwhile, but actually welcomes plant materials — making a different claim for Weerasethakul has noted that the idea of a story of someone she once fell for, and the its powers, appropriate to the person he is singing dentist, for example, is based on an them. In many ways I think it is necessary to narrative shifts to her encounter with an thank our lucky stars we even have anything to trying to sway. actual person. Like a DJ himself in some ways, orchid enthusiast she bumped into at a market the director is an enthusiast, mixing characters talk about, but can’t stress enough the value and began to court. This apparently tactical, even duplicitous of open engagement for both the audience generosity is comic coming from a religious and images he is drawn to. The intense yet and the institution. A dentist in the hospital gives a free check- man, but the scene acknowledges the element gentle pleasure his fi lm offers illuminates the up to a young monk, and the two find an of faith, or the placebo effect, in traditional beauty of people’s passions and the sense of odd connection over their love of pop music. medicines, as well as a peaceful coexistence of the extraordinary or the magical they produce The dentist comes to admit that he feels the different knowledge systems. The latter is a within the everyday. Jackie Chan installation 2006 Kwon Ki-Soo Run, Run, Run 2006 / Kids’ APT5 Indigenous Intrudaz Criticism Gift Wrapped Ellie Buttrose

hat place does art criticism vital instigator of cross-cultural dialogue and No doubt it is also the responsibility have in December’s trifecta of exchange with the Asia-Pacifi c region”. of other art spaces, the universities, art Wopenings — GoMA, APT5 and During the opening weekend, APT5’s publications and blogs, and even Brisbane’s the refurbished QAG? public program featured artists talks in various local Courier-Mail, to discuss and debate the An institution the size of QAG and galleries, and panel discussions chaired by themes and issues at stake in this year’s APT. GoMA combined does not simply concern QAG curators, with artists mainly speaking While critical engagements and refl ections the curators and artists involved in the show, about the panel topics in terms of their own will always go beyond the source, and the or the wider Australian art community, or practices. (There was also a closed-door more platforms for discourse the better, one general public. With its new scale, the Gallery, symposium comprising visiting curators, wonders what could have been gained had more than ever, is a concern of the region scholars and other arts professionals.) QAG/GoMA taken the lead and instigated at large. Indeed, Katrina Schwarz, in her One expected more. The fi rst three APTs a major international conference on this editorial for the recent special APT5 issue had accompanying conferences. Why not a important occasion. of Art And Australia, describes the APT as “a conference for APT5? By no means am I suggesting that art writers and conference speakers are the main agents of cross-cultural dialogue. Exhibitions can also do that very well. In “Our History Is Criticism is not inherently negative … it is Written In Our Mats”, an essay in the APT5 catalogue, Nicholas Thomas argues that “the a platform for problems to be showcased. best exhibitions do not solve problems, they showcase them”. Criticism comes in many forms. It can be a response in writing or an art work. As Ross Gibson says in another APT5 catalogue essay, the great art works of our time are the ones that are “generous and generative”. Criticism, if given an opening, can also take on a generous and generative form. Criticism is not inherently negative. Rather, it is much like Thomas’ best exhibitions: a platform for problems to be showcased.

Justine Cooper Yellow Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus fl avus) from ‘Saved by Science’ series 2005

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 11 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 12

Diffi cult Reading: Art in the Age of Maximum Accessibility A Theatre of Mediated Spectacles Jess Campbell

hen it comes to contemporary Sometimes, however, the interactive APT5’s curating, publishing and public “embraced and enraptured” by the APT even Entertaining and Consuming Ourselves art, how can the public best be projects take on a life of their own, seeming to programming gives the impression that though “some of it can be very confusing” and Wserved? Is art for all possible? Is speak for or speak louder than the artworks. opening doors to deep analysis of the art “there are artists whose names people have Kris Carlon it even desirable? These questions underlie How is one to reconcile eX de Medici’s kids works on display was not a priority. The never heard of” (Courier-Mail 24 November much of the rhetoric surrounding APT5 and project (a cute tattoo shop where kids can simple stories constructed to assist children’s 2006). My criticism is that it appears the GoMA, and suggest two ways of viewing the choose and have applied one of four rub-on understanding seems to have become the APT is trying too hard for audience approval. exhibition and art space. tattoos designed by the artist) with the darkness model for all publicity and publication This goes against what I would consider some he crowd mills around, eagerly which we have produced collectively and which and is complicit with it. The very scale and newsworthy drama is played out. Miniature wonder in what way am I contributing to Interestingly, Utopian Theatre derived from and anger radiating from her watercolours materials. Every artist is presented through a of contemporary art’s primary processes: jostling to get a better view. we all take part in, in which we entertain and content of the work makes it newsworthy, and television screens dot this landscape, replaying the blinding of the audience? Have I been the artist’s childhood fascination with puppet On the one hand, the art and architecture Cameras are clicking, parents consume ourselves”. its pulling power as a “must-see” is in itself a claymation re-enactments of actual news blinded myself? shows, each one kept in a separate box, and are easily read. GoMA’s pavilion-like structure hung nearby? In a panel discussion, the artist single central concept which is re-explained disrupting, questioning and engaging the T said her Tattoo Shop was meant to be fun everywhere. Thus Bharti Kher is “about” political dimensions of culture and society. are repositioning their children, all are Zhou’s theatre is made of clay, but it triumph of that which it condemns. And just stories from Chinese TV. Each tableaux comes Comprising catastrophe, assassination, the realisation that while each box told one is ostensibly “democratic”, refl ecting the enthralled, none are able to tear their eyes as those viewing it may wholeheartedly agree complete with a barrage of reporters, wielding story it could be used to tell many others, open spaces of Ancient Greek forums, or so rather than educational. Doesn’t this sideline specialness and adornment, and Ai Weiwei is The 19th century French author Alexis de also appears around us. The white walls and political conference, landslide and public art as entertainment? “about” consumption and excess. The works away. What it is? What did I miss? Did anyone polished concrete of GoMA represent yet with Zhou’s sentiment, they cannot help but endless cameras and microphones, capturing trial, Zhou’s “malleable clay theatre ruminates rewritings and misreadings included. The Director Doug Hall has claimed. One can Tocqueville wrote that to love democracy well fi lm it? Pushing my way to the front of the joyfully consume the spectacle that reveals the “truth” of every event, only to warp and fact that puppets are better at teaching us move about freely. QAG’s public programs When Kwon Ki-Soo’s ostensibly simple themselves are neither simple or simplistic. you have to love it in moderation. Everyone another stage upon which we too are actors, on the fi ckle nature of memory and on the crowd I see what they see, at once frozen in consuming the work within and adding to the preposterousness of the consumption of distort it in its televised presentation. In this principles of truth and knowledge, elements new information than humans makes Zhou’s also strive to realise the vision that art museums paintings (which feature a smiling cartoon The brief catalogue essays are not intended in a democratic society having a voice does time and repeated endlessly, a cascading media spectacle. world, the endlessly replayed vision on the choice of medium all the more revealing. Like can be “for everybody”. Art is accessible, even character) are positioned on one wall in a as a substitute for serious scholarship. But not mean that society will automatically be the human spectacle. Utopian Theatre is at once which struggle for validity in a regulated landscape of spectacle and consumption. As a parody of the news media, a re-enactment, A large-scale circular diorama made up television screens can be seen to emanate media environment”. The way offi cial history children, we should take everything in and be comfortable for all. gallery that is taken over by another large nowhere in the public programming was there harmonious and egalitarian, that the liberty Zhou Xiaohu says of the work Utopian Theatre from the cameras of those frozen in each delighted by the spectacle before us, but at children’s project (Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s Everyone any scope for this. Forums such as “Translating of all its citizens will be properly protected. and a retelling; but at the same time as it of ten tableaux, each sector of Utopian Theatre is constructed by those in power and how that On the other hand, there is also the (2006), “it is a stage of events and a world critiques the media mechanism, it adds to re-presents a mediated stage on which a event. The snapshot, clip and infi nite loop history is then disseminated should also be a the same time be profoundly suspicious and reading of art that is more prolonged, Likes Someone As You Like Someone), rather than Tradition” and “Working Through History” Democracy must exist amidst a system of are ineluctably combined in Utopian Theatre. question everything, lest contemplation be in a dedicated space inviting in-depth were occasions for the artists to speak about managing institutions and values. Most central concern of the gallery visitor. By re- demanding — in a word, diffi cult. Art is At the same time, all the depicted events presenting these events, Zhou “questions the replaced by distraction. for the “arts-aware”, something requiring consideration of his works in their own right, their own practices more than anything else. importantly, a democratic society must it makes his art seem less serious, more fun. have the ability to discriminate when it is are synchronous and co-existent, occurring possibility of a utopia in the face of human knowledge – a specialised fi eld. Accordingly, The Gallery has a responsibility to push art in a theatrical space outside linear time corruption and greed”, but he also opens QAG’s publishing and scholarship endeavour The art in APT5 is immediately visually as complex, diffi cult, sometimes frightening. appropriate and when it is not appropriate to apply certain democratic principles. If the (much like the various stories represented by them up to the possibility of reinterpretation to be of the highest quality. appealing, perhaps because of a desire to A glimpse of colour and excitement in a place the works drawn together in APT5). Like the and questioning. As an invited artist of The engage kids. Some works employ pleasurable of safety is well and good, but the Gallery also APT5 and GoMA are symptomatic of art in an In the curatorial presentation of APT5 age of maximum accessibility, then QAG must endless rewinds of catastrophes — the collapse Long March Project, Zhou clearly subscribes and in the architecture of the new building, visual tricks. For instance, Rashid Rana’s large needs to up the ante on behalf of its audience of the World Trade Centre is here presented to the words of its initiator, Lu Jie, when photographs of Bollywood stars and Pakistanis and deliberately expose them to risk and remember that maximum accessibility does it seems the balance between these two ways not always mean optimum accessibility, that in “real time” and then “rewound” before he asserts, “The Long March Project will of reading tips heavily towards the accessible. at a parade are skilfully composed of thousands difference. our eyes — these events live on in a kind of re-examine how our reading and rewriting of smaller images, fi lm stills or portraits, maximum love for an audience does not equal The visitor is consistently presented with the It’s tricky, but it can be done: by refusing maximum understanding. The Gallery might perceptual limbo, at once rooted to a specifi c of things Western and the Western reading easy option in interpreting the art. Art is inviting a “how’d he do that” response. Yang to select only the most accessible works in an time and place, but also able to be eternally and rewriting of things Chinese has affected Zhenzhong’s photographs of heavy objects take a lesson from de Tocqueville: to love your interesting, but ultimately safe. It is rarely artist’s oeuvre, or by restraining the impulse audience well, love them in moderation. replayed and repositioned. By presenting personal and mutual understanding.” presented as a site of confl ict, or of multiple miraculously balanced on fi ngers similarly to display a fun feature-piece in the watermall Utopian Theatre in the round, Zhou has allowed rely on a sense of magic. Sheer spectacle, a As Lu Jie says, we must recognise contradictory readings. his audience to stand back and view the world misreading as misreading and acknowledge the well-established APT tradition, manifests this they have created in a condensed theatrical The most overt expression of accessibility year in Ai Weiwei’s gigantic tiered chandelier creative power implied therein. Integrating is GoMA’s architecture. It seems less interested setting. However, there is hardly anything production, consumption and interpretation hovering over QAG’s watermall. His precious The lightness of GoMA’s structure lets one utopian about it. in challenging the audience and instead aims sensual bowl of cultured pearls is lavish, is a key component of The Long March to be comfortable. Doug Hall has described excessive. The utopian element of Zhou’s Theatre Project’s activities, and this creative potential the new architecture as “legible” and indeed move freely around rather than pressing the arguably occurs through our consumption is refl ected in Zhou’s reading of both Chinese from its extensive ubiquitous windows one Other works are less bling and more of spectacle as entertainment, in the sense and Western history. This potential almost can readily read where one is in the city; the bounce, using a strong graphic appeal and visitor in. that despite the horror and violence of what becomes a demand in Utopian Theatre, with the structure of the building and ways to navigate a sense of humour. These include Bharti we watch, we are blissfully absorbed by it, recognition of our enslavement no longer it are clear. A sense of place is also legible in Kher’s works covered in thousands of bindis; desensitised to the world it depicts. Walter permitting passive absorption of the status the familiarity of GoMA’s materials. The condoms and ice-cream sprouting from (a strategy that worked in previous exhibitions, Benjamin, in his infl uential text “The quo. By contaminating the very media used timber slatting and miles of concrete are Masami Teraoka’s traditional-looking ukiyo-e but is perhaps in need of a rethink). It could Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical to control us, Zhou invokes the revolutionary as suburban as a house or primary school. images; and Eko Nugroho’s murals and textiles be done by repositioning Kwon Ki-Soo’s Reproduction”, argued that humanity’s “self- spirit that is the legacy of the original Long Pleasant art-oriented food and shopping manifesting the strangeness and surrealism of work so that adults feel able to access it as alienation has reached such a degree that it can March. And like Benjamin, we are encouraged experiences are also there. If GoMA were a social reality. These works, because they are well as children and by commissioning a few experience its own destruction as an aesthetic to prioritise contemplation over distraction. text, I would have no diffi culty reading it. obviously pleasing and so numerous, add to longer and more in-depth catalogue essays. It pleasure of the fi rst order”. an exhibition experience which leans toward could be done by exposing kids to the political Ultimately what Zhou demands is an The Kids’ APT, a major program the superfi cial and momentary, regardless of content of eX de Medici’s work in workshops; Zhou’s dystopia is transformed into unravelling of the authorised statement, the within APT5, is the ultimate expression of their intended complexity. by encouraging debate and even confl ict a utopian environment of pleasurable offi cial history, the accepted version of events. the Gallery’s commitment to accessibility. in the artists talks and forums. I’m asking consumption via its technologised mediation; His use of identical nondescript fi gures not Artists collaborate with Gallery staff to Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an art one can see the power the media and only allows his sculptures to speak of universal purist. I want audiences to feel comfortable in for more emphasis on reading at multiple produce interactive projects for kids; the new levels, acknowledging the complexities and spectacle have on what we (think we) see. ills, they also afford a covert critique of Children’s Art Centre in GoMA provides an art museum, to enjoy staying for hours, to As Zhou says, “when we take pleasure in the Chinese culture from within. This kind of read a work any way they can. But at the same contaminations created when different space just for kids’ activities; and didactic approaches to reading the same work happen theatricality of political events, viewing them self-refl exive critique is an essential aspect labels and Scoots, the turtle guide, accompany time I want to take the Gallery’s professed as entertainment, we are blinded”. of navigating growth and progress. “The use aspirations to present art of quality at its in proximity. kids around the show. In the same sense, the new GoMA presents of claymation — often found in children’s word. Curatorially, APT5 seems to take the While the APT does provide local animated fi lms — doesn’t take the edge off the The Kids’ APT really works. The sheer path of least resistance. The Gallery needs to audiences an opportunity to engage with a mediated spectacle of its own. As part of the number of children that participate, not to media preview, our guide made a revealing subject matter but, rather, cloaks it.” (The aim more for the other goals it has set itself, difference, I’m asking that it do more implication here is fascinating: to what extent mention the constant stream of accolades including the facilitation of the prolonged, to address the complexity of difference. slip when she referred to the “mediaslide” in Zhou’s work (I think she meant “mudslide”). might the Kids’ APT cloak certain ideological from the public, is clear evidence of this. even diffi cult reading of challenging art. Doug Hall has spoken about visitors being Zhou Xiaohu Utopian Theatre (detail) 2006 Ai Weiwei Boomerang (installation view) 2006 Being a part of that mediaslide myself, I structures?) Dongguri Farts Stars! Vegetable Weapon Etiquette Kwon Ki-Soo Tsuyoshi Ozawa Jess Campbell Kris Carlon

ongguri farts stars! Kwon Ki- haunts are similarly non-places, voids. At the panel discussion Kwon said, suyoshi Ozawa’s Vegetable Weapon Ozawa operates on a much more unassuming experience that counts in this equation, not Soo’s art is overrun by a strange Much of this serious content is lost “I don’t think my work is appropriate for photos aren’t really all that and personal level. While Tiravanija turns the physical objects we see in the gallery. Dgenderless little character on adult audiences due to the centring of children.” He explained that Run, Run, Run Texciting, but what would you relationships into a spectacle, Ozawa opts for But what about the long-term effects? composed of little more than a smiley-face Kwon’s work within the Kids’ APT, and while expresses the despair of trying to keep up expect from an artist who spends more time a more low-key approach. While Tiravanija Does an encounter with Ozawa permanently head and a square body. In one animation, these “adult themes” are mentioned in the with South Korean society’s emphasis on in the kitchen than the studio? might be more well-known, the “showy” change your world-view? Not necessarily, but Dongguri farts stars, blossoms, miniature wall labels and catalogue essay, they are not productivity, its long working hours and Ozawa travels the world, meeting local aspect of his work seems almost exploitative the connection made, even for just one day, is Dongguris, and a bomb. Kwon’s art is fun! pursued in those materials. competitive workplaces and schools. The work women, going shopping with them for the in comparison to the personal connection not only comparable to the more traditional No wonder his works form a major part of is about suffering, about wanting to run away ingredients for their favourite meal, then negotiated by Ozawa. effect of art, it occurs in a much more real, Kwon’s work is spread over two locations and hide, about never being able to stop. the Kids’ APT, a major program within APT5. in QAG and GoMA. In QAG his paintings are having dinner with them. But he is more than The disparity of recognition between the much more tangible way. The reminder Four paintings and fi ve short animations are positioned on a wall in a gallery largely devoted QAG Assistant Director Lynne Seear a cultural tourist. He has a message that he two artists could also be an effect of Ozawa’s provided by the (collectable and displayable) displayed as well as a hands-on kids’ project to Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s interactive project, which pointed out that Kwon was complicit in needs to share one-on-one, in the privacy of critique of institutional mechanisms, for photograph means the recollection of the developed in collaboration with the Gallery. encourages kids to make drawings of their this misinterpretation. She also noted that his subjects’ homes, where they’re most likely instance with the Nasubi Gallery project he aesthetic experience is never to be forgotten, Magical, cute Dongguri is a friendly starting favourite person and run up a mountain of kids were asked to engage with the works in to listen. Over dinner, he discusses a range initiated in the Ginza gallery district in Tokyo. adding a depth to the work for those involved point for a child’s journey into art. This is futons to post them. Surrounded by pinned- a meditative way, to stop them running for a of topics that usually centre on confl ict and The project began as a condemnation of and a meaningfulness-by-association for the why Black Forest 2 (2006) was the single image up drawings, Dongguri seems too much like moment. Kwon went on to say that perhaps violence. “The works deconstruct the idea curatorial selection processes. However, after rest of us. used on the promotional poster for the Kids’ cheery wallpaper. That the room becomes a the misinterpretation of his work was a that problems can be solved through violence, setting up his Nasubi Gallery project at the By engaging “regular” people in such APT. It’s also quite a sensitive choice. In walkway around the edges of Ozawa’s work beautiful misinterpretation, not necessarily rather than through mutual cooperation and Venice Biennale in a protest about exclusion, a pivotal role for the work to be realised, Kwon’s paintings, the ability of the child-like further discourages contemplation of Kwon’s destroying his meaning but adding to it. cultural awareness.” And it is in the intimacy he was absorbed into the international Ozawa’s gesture speaks to a much larger Dongguri to permeate simplifi ed landscapes paintings. Adults without children might This puts an interesting spin on the Kids’ of the delivery, that the real effect, and biennale circuit, providing a kind of internal audience than a perfectly composed but suggests children’s ability to independently also feel discouraged from viewing Kwon’s APT. A project intended for children has content, of Ozawa’s work can be felt. critique that is both a refreshing outlook and essentially hollow image or a mass-attended navigate the strange and unfamiliar. animations, which are presented on child- become a fi eld for discussion about the artist’s Before each meal is prepared, Ozawa a confi dent inclusion. “event” where little or no real connection is However, Dongguri also has a dark height fl at screens deep inside the Children’s agency, about the meaning of Kwon’s art. As fashions the ingredients into a weapon and Taking the focus of the aesthetic made with the artist. And when the work relies side. Its alarming tendency to proliferate Art Centre. I watched kids play with the dolls, I began to photographs his hostess brandishing it. The experience away from the actual object and on the genuineness of the experience and the and multiply points to the problem of In the panel discussion about the Kids’ think that their activity was like a work of art in idea of a weapon is in obvious contrast to placing it on the experience itself is a key simplicity of the idea, knowing that it is not maintaining self-identity in a world of APT, Kwon addressed how his work had been itself. The children did not seem meditative, the sharing convivial space of dinner-table aspect of the relational model that Tiravanija an art world fi ction makes all the difference. exploding populations and mass production, repositioned for kids specifi cally in terms of they seemed excited, caught up in the game. discourse. and Ozawa practice, although Tiravanija a world that values sameness, standardisation, his interactive project. Run, Run, Run (2006) Might they be acting out the standardisation Ozawa’s Vegetable Weapon series packs a focuses more on the performative dimension and quantity over quality. In one animation is a long table where kids can sit and construct and homogeneity of contemporary existence, certain kind of punch that exists outside of and Ozawa on the interactive. Any objects Dongguri splits repeatedly until it forms a fl at foam Dongguri dolls from different- where difference is expressed within a traditional aesthetic concerns. Compared that result — often a necessary consideration massive army. The sheer repetitiveness of the coloured parts. The parts are interchangeable confi ned set of parameters? with contemporaries like Rirkrit Tiravanija, for inclusion in traditional museum hangs — character in the artist’s practice is another and standardised. Dongguri is made and Whether or not the curatorial staff a Thai artist reknowned for preparing are, to them, merely indicators of the events kind of spawning. After repeated viewing, remade hundreds of times a day by successive intended to make art out of child’s play, I banquet-style meals for gallery visitors in the surrounding their creation. That is where Dongguri becomes frighteningly empty of waves of children. Above the activity table, would have liked the complexity of Kwon’s Whitney Museum or the Venice Biennale, the art lies; it is the gesture and the shared meaning or personality, its white face almost complete Dongguri dolls chase each other up work to have been better emphasised in the a death mask. The landscapes that Dongguri the wall. way it was exhibited. It would be a shame if audiences, both adults and children, failed to fully explore and appreciate the wicked combination of light and dark that is Dongguri.

Kwon Ki-Soo Colour Forest 2006 Tsuyoshi Ozawa Giblets Hotpot/Fukuoka (from Vegetable Weapon series) 2002

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 13 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006 THE ARTREADER 14

exoticism and essentialism. colonial Australia, Marawili’s attempts at Qureshi’s paintings in APT5 ostensibly self-defi nition and cultural reassertion fl irt adopt the style of Mughal musaviri (fi gurative or dangerously with neo-colonial and market Looking Through the Rear-view Mirror miniature) painting, which is currently being structures; a problem that incited Richard mobilised in certain Pakistani art circles as the Bell to provocatively assert a few years back, offi cial, but apparently endangered, national “Aboriginal Art – It’s a White Thing.” art tradition. For Qureshi, the ritualisation Finally then, as audiences and institutions and mystifi cation of this cultural past lacks a alike are asked to self-refl exively negotiate the Traditional Practices in APT5 critical history and ignores the patriarchy and rules of engagement for artistic and cultural imperialism that brought the style into being. heterogeneity in the contemporary scene, how Ulanda Blair Qureshi’s paintings appropriate the have APT5’s organisers framed traditional art age-old techniques and imagery of musaviri practices in all their guises and permutations? painting, replaying them critically to interrogate A revisit of APT5’s two multi-artist projects proves useful. PT5 places an unacknowledged both nationalist and orientalist prejudices. curatorial emphasis on works that Paintings like A Garden Of Fruit Trees (2006) Firstly, in physically and ideologically re- incorporate, celebrate and subvert and Justifi ed Behavioural Sketch (2002) articulate connecting the international art domain with A layered, historically situated narratives where traditional art practices in peripheral locales, “traditional” art practices. From the vibrantly coloured, intricately patterned quilts and mats active female heroines share the frame with The Long March Project aims to broaden of the Pacifi c Textiles Project to the delicate ghostly relics of colonial India. the knowledge and improve the skills-base Chinese paper cut-outs of Liu Jieqiong in By manipulating access to her heavily of all its participants. By enabling person- The Long March Project, from the subversive coded imagery, Qureshi highlights the more to-person cross-cultural communication, “miniature” paintings of Pakistan-born and pervasive problem of misinterpretation across The Long March Project draws on a wealth Australian-based Nusra Latif Qureshi to audiences, and in the process goes some way of complex histories and realities, from both the buwayak bark paintings of Indigenous towards reclaiming authorship of the “us inside and out, and frames new contemporary Australian Djambawa Marawili and more, the and them” binary. In the context of APT5 art trajectories for further exploration. exhibition presents a variety of contemporary however, where most of the audience is indeed By contrast, the Pacifi c Textiles Project – art practices intimately engaged with local unfamiliar with Qureshi’s culturally specifi c drawing together disparate practices that exist cultural traditions. references and the formal characteristics of fairly autonomously in their respective cultures For an exhibition event that has long traditional musaviri painting, her strategy is – does little to prompt new understandings of assumed centre-stage in representing the susceptible to the longstanding problem of the contemporary. Here the “contemporary” diversity of contemporary art practice from exoticism and commodifi cation. label is superimposed upon indigenous and the region, the inclusion of these practices A similar challenge faces Indigenous regional cultural practices. is neither particularly ground-breaking nor Australian painter Djambawa Marawili, whose As Pacifi c textiles become the latest novel unexpected (it might be said that APT5 as a bark paintings and ceremonial memorial “untapped” practice to get ushered into the whole offers no major suprises). However, poles carry secret sacred cultural symbols and international contemporary arts arena, their considering that certain traditional art motifs that elude interpretation by the largely juxtaposition in APT5 with the contemporary practices continue to be framed as folkloric uninitiated and unauthorised audience. folk practices of The Long March Project raises and retrograde in many international circles, Marawili lives and works at Yilpara in the urgent questions regarding the representation and that cultural heritage is mobilised in Northern Territory, where the Yolngu people of traditional art practice in the international varied and complex ways across the exhibition, have created a contemporary visual lexicon contemporary art context and its susceptibility further discussion is called for. that enables representation of the sacred to processes of co-option. In their media releases, APT5’s organisers Law, songs, stories, totems and traditions of stressed engagement with contemporary art their ancestors, without transgressing cultural from the Pacifi c region. Notwithstanding the protocols. eclectic music and performing arts program, Marawili’s buwayak (invisibility) paintings, it’s arguable that these practices are still under- which are characterised by their shimmering, represented in the exhibition, with just fi ve of white-on-white fi ligree-style cross-hatching, the 37 individual projects hailing from Pacifi c convey the reality of the unseen; the underlying countries outside of Australia. The most forces in the landscape to which the artist and thorough encounter with the region can be his people have a deep-rooted connection. found in one contained space, where QAG’s Sivaimauga Vaagi Fala su’i 2005 Skeletal geometrical designs conceal powerful internally-organised Pacifi c Textiles Project fi gurative elements underneath, creating a has brought together 20 women practitioners imperialist histories of the Pacifi c Islands. an acceptable international style. Through its where paper cut-outs and survey forms were surface charge that for the Yolngu people from across the disparate arts communities Other works depict the political instability physical retracing of the original Long March of collected from over 15,000 individuals, and embodies the energy of the spirits contained of the Pacifi c Islands, including, for the fi rst that, to this very day, plagues countries such 1934-5 and its direct engagement with people added to a vast archive of documentary films, within. time, Hawaii. as Fiji. Set against this background of rupture all over the country, The Long March Project sound recordings, texts and photographs, now Developed partly in response to the market Encompassing a vibrant diverse collection and fragility, the continuation of and national attempts to instil international contemporary touring internationally. demand for abstract or less fi gurative Aboriginal of woven fabrics and textiles usually overlooked pride in traditional textiles practice in the art with Chinese idiosyncrasies, at the same As the Long March team brought art, as well as to preserve Indigenous cultural in major contemporary international Pacifi c carries strong geo-political resonance. time empowering local Chinese artists with the contemporary art into the rural province, knowledge and traditions, Marawili’s buwayak exhibitions of this sort, the Pacifi c Textiles The other multi-artist project in APT5 international language of contemporary art. it also brought the folk tradition of paper- paintings represent a complex and precarious Project communicates narratives of kinship, is by the Chinese-based initiative The Long Among the eight artists’ works included cutting into a formalised contemporary art bicultural negotiation where dynamic cultural family and genealogy. It traces shifts in March Project. A more focused discussion in The Long March Project exhibit is a large space, undermining elitist distinctions between traditions and Dreamtime narratives battle the political and social systems across the region. of the multi-platform Long March Project intricate paper cut-out by contemporary folk “folk” and “high” art, and demonstrating the commercial imperatives of the contemporary All of the works are innovative continuations can be found elsewhere in The Artreader, but artist Liu Jieqiong, Story Of The Red Army (2004). dynamism of both traditional practices and art market. Works like Burrut’tji (Lightning Serpent) of local customary practices, updated using (2002) express a productively unassimilable central to its theoretical framework and Liu’s work, a contemporary expression of an collective memory in China. Nusra Latif Qureshi Justifi ed Behavioural Sketch commercially sourced materials and new structural organisation is its sensitivity to, and ancient though still pervasive Chinese artform, quality, at the very same time that their formal techniques. Working in a similarly self-refl exive and compositional dexterity makes Yolngu 2002 respect for, art practices in remote Chinese playfully activates memories of communism in manner is Nusra Latif Qureshi, a Pakistani Some works, such as Tahitian Aline communities. rural Yan’an, where the original Long March knowledge and expression half-way palpable artist based in Australia. For Qureshi, the very for non-traditional audiences. Amaru’s quilt La Famillie Pomare (1991) and Contemporary Chinese art has undergone ended. notion of tradition itself is fraught, bound Tongan Susana Kaafi ’s Fala Pati (1988) rapid internationalisation in recent years, with In 2004 The Long March Project spent as it is historically to national preservationist However, in the face of collective articulate the turbulent colonial and local specifi city being largely assimilated into six months working in Yanchuan County, strategies and Western economies of cultural Anglo-European anxiety and guilt in post-

A Legitimate Disguise: When Fiction Redresses Documentary Lily Hibberd

Linh, the permutations are clearly convoluted collective history, even if contrasts are popular in Vietnam. Deemed subversive and and contested — it’s not as simple as just telling apparent in terms of narrative and conceptual banned in her own country for three years, “your story”. devices and his liaison with the Long March Me Thao is a compelling allegorical critique of A migrant to New Zealand, John Pule group. imperialism in Vietnam. If you get past the came from Niue. In an artist talk at GoMA Born in Ho Chi Minh City, at age 16 Viet largely wooden performances, the strongest he informed the audience of his teenage years Linh took part in the Vietnamese resistance character to emerge is the mute girl, who is as a factory worker in the 1980s. He wanted movement or “maquis”, and was exiled from ironically and cruelly usurped in pursuit of to change his life so he started writing, fi rstly the city. In 1975, at the end of the war, she love by a timber dummy. poetry, then a novel. The Shark That Ate The Sun: joined her father and thousands of North In Linh’s black and white fi lm of 1988, Ko E Maago Ne Kai E Laa, his fi rst book, offers Vietnamese in their re-entry into Saigon; a Travelling Circus, there’s a number of formal an outspoken and detailed portrayal of family scene depicted in the opening sequence of her correspondences with the cinema of Italian life on Niue. 1995 fi lm Collective Flat (Chung Cu). neo-realist Federico Fellini. Linh cites Fellini Pule regrets being so frank, as the book’s Screened for the fi rst time in Australia at as a key infl uence. Her use of the melodrama, popular and critical acclaim took its toll. In APT5, the fi lm is an adaptation of a famous like his of vaudeville, is in deference to a dying a church service one Sunday Pule’s Aunty novel by dissident writer Nguyen Ho. A genre. Expressionist lighting and camera work waved a copy of the book in the air, damning political fable, it tells the story of a group contribute to the neo-realist look, on top of it and his mother, who stood beside him. of Vietnamese nationalists, the Viet Minh, the gritty old fi lm stock presumably used due His mother had told him many of the stories and their everyday experiences of resettling to the constraints of a minuscule budget. contained in the book and she never went in a communal apartment. The narrative Collective Flat, like Fellini’s 81/2, is partly back to church again. Pule now says, “I don’t revolves around Tham, an old man employed autobiographical. Linh has said the fi lm was want to give away too much, I like to keep a as the caretaker of the abandoned Victory directly inspired by personal history. In 1975 few things to myself”, which isn’t a surprising Hotel requisitioned by the new Vietnamese she returned from the resistance zone on a response, except that his fi rst novel was about government. truck resembling the one in the fi lm and lived life on an island he’d left at age two. As the decade unfolds, the other residents in a building not dissimilar to the Victory Fiction laid over fact is familiar as allegory, rebuild their lives, mirroring the effects of the Hotel. Although Collective Flat is essentially a however for Pule they’re interchangeable, and Government’s redevelopment policies like Doi factual account of the post-war experience, for he’d rather let visitors in through the back Moi (renovation). The rapid transition has Linh the vulnerable protagonists of her fi lms than open up the front door. That’s why he depressing effects on the building and Tham, are a direct means of narrating experience. loves poetry; it’s a roundabout way of telling both being overtaken by modernisation and Linh describes the characters as being truths. Pule also swaps, mingles and equates left behind by the younger inhabitants who are inspired by people she met in that period art forms in a similar way: his novels and able to move on and embrace an increasingly and that they embody acute emotions, as the paintings are poems too. His Lagaki (To Lift) individualist society. One acts as a metaphor fl at does in terms of a reunifi cation of the series is an amalgam of personal imagery, for the other, and as an allegory of the Vietnamese, bringing the divided together Niuean symbols, painterly effect and hand- country too, Tham representing the South from North and South as well as from civilian written excerpts from his second novel, Burn Vietnamese struggle and ultimate acceptance and military spheres. At the same time Linh My Head In Heaven: Tugi E Ulu Haaku He Langi. Pule’s of revolutionary ideals. is very defi nite that they are not characters is a distinctive approach, where autobiography Earlier fi lms, like the period piece Me she identifi es with, outlining how secrecy and Niuean history are interpolated within Thao: Once Upon A Time (2002), employ more functions as a game of hide and seek in the rather than through fi ction. categorically the melodramatic form, so maintenance of fi ction. Qin Ga is a Long March Project member and an independently established Chinese artist, although born in Mongolia. The Long March team’s endeavour is to follow the route of the historic military retreat of China’s Communist Party in 1934 –5. Qin’s work in APT5, The Miniature Long March (2002–5), documents his role in the project through tattoo, the locus being his own body. Remaining in Beijing, Qin traced the initial stages of the walkers’ route. When the expedition halted he resolved to complete the mission himself. Presented in video footage, it’s an epic pilgrimage scaling mountains, inhabiting remote villages and crawling naked in the snow. This could be read as heroic individualism, however Qin speaks of John Pule Tukulagi Tukumuitea (Forever And Ever) (detail) 2005 it as a very personal action, a form of public art where historical and personal change is enacted on and within the self. hen a contemporary artist Renaissance, the individual shifted from the of the work, often simplistically, to the presents personal material, periphery to the core of Western thought in escalating irritation and dismay of the artists Qin says: “The process is not important. you can abandon any notion philosophy, science and art. Art has assumed themselves. What’s signifi cant is the transformation that W has occurred through experience.” It’s a of the work being either pure fact or total this stance ever since, even when the 1960s APT5 offers works by a number of happening that Qin describes as emotional, fi ction. Understanding contemporary artists’ bolted in, bombarding the West with all kinds artists that merge documentary with fi ctional relationships to their works and themselves of new technology and media. Individuals taking place in body and soul — the pain on representations of the self, the most his back as he was tattooed binding him to requires charting a trajectory of the artistic like the ubiquitous Andy Warhol quickly prominent trait being how these two positions persona in art history; all the more critical in became central to public recognition in art the team members on their trek; the pain of are interchangeable. Three practitioners his month-long walk embedding him within the theatrical setting of a major exhibition like and cinema. By the 1990s identity politics illustrate the negotiations between these two APT5. defi ned contemporary practice, with artists’ nature. Like Pule, a supplementary biography forms. Comparing painter John Pule, Long is enacted in Qin’s commemoration of Viet Linh Me Thao: Once Upon A Time (still) 2002 Hundreds of years ago, during the biographies deployed as a principal reading March member Qin Ga, and fi lmmaker Viet

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION 15 THE ARTREADER DECEMBER 2006

6gi6jhigVa^V 6h^V"EVX^ÒX;dXjh>hhjZ ;ZVijg^c\/ HVc\ZZiVHVcYgVhZ\Vg i^hi]ZeZg[ZXiXdbeVc^dc i]^h]da^YVnhZVhdc!dgi]Z 6h^V"EVX^ÒXIg^Zcc^Va#

6kV^aVWaZcVi^dcVaan[gdbVaa\ddYWdd`hidgZhVcYcZlhV\Zcih# lll#VgiVcYVjhigVa^V#Xdb#Vjdg[gZZXVaa&-%%'')%&-#

THE ARTREADER / APT5 COMPANION