Caroline Turner

Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making

This book chapter was published in the book Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making [© ANU Press]. The definitive published version is available at https://press.anu.edu.au/catalog?search=Contemporary+Asian+Art+and+Exhibitions.

Wounds in Our Heart: Indentity and Social Justice in the Art of Dadang Christanto

On 10 September 1999 at the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial exhibition in Brisbane, Australia, I was part of a large crowd of around 1000 who gathered to watch a performance by Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto. The event took place in front of his artwork, Api di Bulan Mei 1998/Fire in May 1998 (Figure 5.1) an installation of rows of 47 larger-than-lifesized male and female papier mâche sculptural figures, their hands raised in supplication, which were to be ritually burned as part of the performance. The artist had dedicated this work to the victims, mainly Chinese — those who died and the women who were raped — when businesses and homes were destroyed in the Indonesian riots that occurred in Jakarta and Solo in May 1998, during popular protests that brought down the Suharto regime (Turner and Clark 1999). A fact-finding team appointed by the Indonesian Government, Tim Gabungan Pencari Fakta (TGPF) reported that nearly 1300 people had died in the riots, many of them burned to death when trapped by demonstrators in supermarkets (People’s Daily Online 2000).1 The artist began the performance by weaving slowly among the figures, in his characteristic performance state of semi-trance, kneeling in respect to each figure as if to a parent or in prayer before, with great reverence, setting the figures alight one by one.

Cross-Cultural Exchanges and Interconnections from the 1980s and 1990s: ARX and the APT

Introduction The late 1980s and early 1990s were a proactive and pivotal period in Australia’s engagement with contemporary Asian art. Australia increasingly began to explore the vibrant practices of artists from the region and key exhibitions that embraced the work of artists from Asia were established. These initiatives, set within a domestic political environment that heralded Australia as ‘neither a fringe dweller nor an interloper, but mainstream partner’ in the region, led to a reconsideration of Asia’s importance on economic, social and cultural levels. If perhaps ultimately overambitious, Australia’s early 1990s aspiration to be accepted as part of Asia led to shifts in cultural policies and the development of artistic initiatives which provided platforms that had significant consequences and resonance beyond Australia. A number of the artists and curators involved have emphasised the importance of these events for cross-cultural exchanges of ideas and for Australia’s participation in contemporary art in Asia. This article analyses these developments through a discussion of the Artists’ Regional Exchange (ARX) in Western Australia and the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) in Brisbane. Our analysis is based on our personal involvement with the APT, together with archival sources and interviews with artists and curators involved in both projects. ARX and APT had quite different institutional, political and artistic contexts, yet there were continuities between them and connections also with other initiatives, including Asialink, which, as Pamela Zeplin argued, have not been fully detailed as part of the historical record. Overlapping networks of individuals underpinned Australia’s engagement with Asia at this time. While most projects were independent and not formally linked, the coalescence of networks reinforced connections and intensified engagement. This essay is part of a larger project being undertaken by the authors to conduct interviews and reassess developments in Australia’s cultural relations with Asia and the Pacific in this era. Our own involvement as participants needs to be

Contemporary Asian art and exhibitions

Overview: This volume draws together essays by leading art experts observing the dramatic developments in Asian art and exhibitions in the last two decades. The authors explore new regional and global connections and new ways of understanding contemporary Asian art in the twenty-first century. The essays coalesce around four key themes: world-making; intra-Asian regional connections; art’s affective capacity in cross-cultural engagement; and Australia’s cultural connections with Asia. In exploring these themes, the essays adopt a diversity of approaches and encompass art history, art theory, visual culture and museum studies, as well as curatorial and artistic practice. With introductory and concluding essays by editors Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner this volume features contributions from key writers on the region and on contemporary art: Patrick D Flores, John Clark, Chaitanya Sambrani, Pat Hoffie, Charles Merewether, Marsha Meskimmon, Francis Maravillas, Oscar Ho, Alison Carroll and Jacqueline Lo. Richly illustrated with artworks by leading contemporary Asian artists, Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making will be essential reading for those interested in recent developments in contemporary Asian art, including students and scholars of art history, Asian studies, museum studies, visual and cultural studies.

Recovering Lives Through Art: Hidden Histories and Commemoration in the Works of Katsushige Nakahashi and Dadang Christanto

This essay is a reflection on the work of two contemporary artists: Japanese artist Katsushige Nakahashi and Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto. Both artists explore issues of history, memory and the commemoration of past lives. Nakahashi has focussed on the subject of the Pacific war (1941–45) and Japans defeat in that war. The art of Dadang Christanto is dedicated to human rights abuses in every time and place but is also about Indonesia and very specifically about the killings in that nation in 1965–66 and events in Indonesia and East Timor in the 1980s and 1990s. Indonesian art grew out of the struggle for independence and over the last decades of the twentieth century was highly engaged with issues of social justice—but Christanto is one of the very few artists to allude to these specific events. Japanese contemporary artists by contrast have been seen as disengaged from social and political issues and Nakahashi is one of the few in that nation in recent years to raise the traumatic issue of Japans wartime defeat. For both artists dialogue with audiences is an essential part of their work. This essay is concerned also with analysing the ways artists communicate and engage with those audiences.

The Asia-Pacific Triennial: A Forum

As this issue of the JOURNAL raises the question of globalisms influence on the way art history will be written, we thought it would be timely to address the history of the Asia- Pacific Triennial (APT). Mounted by Brisbanes Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), the APT is the only regular survey show dedicated to the art of this region. It was launched in 1993, and has had four subsequent installments—APT2 (1996), APT3 (1999), APT4 (2003), and APT5 (2006)—with APT6 due to open late 2009. The APT proved prophetic, anticipating, pacing, and co-evolving with the rise of contemporary art in Asia. When it began, it was entering largely uncharted territory, and many of the issues it confronted, in retrospect, proved key to the times. As such, we asked some participants and observers to comment on the evolution of this unique project. While we canvassed many people, not all angles are covered. This remains a partial account.