Free Tai Chi classes with green tea
BEFORE I saw the Asia-Pacific Triennial 2002 I was asked several times by colleagues in Indonesia why the event had changed. The question implied a perception that Australia was continuing its disengagement with Asia (what those in diplomacy call a 're-balancing'). Where selection had been accessible, inclusive, celebratory, it now appeared academic, hierarchical, and exclusive.
Apparently the Asia-Pacific Triennial (APT) was always bound for change and a new, revised format was launched amidst rumours of its discontinuation. While the first three APTs (1993, 1996, 1999) exhibited two hundred and twenty artists, and APT 1999 involved fifty curators from all over the region in the selection of seventy artists, this APT involved five Gallery curators (led by the Director Doug Hall) selecting only sixteen artists.
Principally, the process has been downscaled and brought in-house (although as the press release maintains, the exhibition is of 'similar scale and spectacle to its predecessors'). The catalogue introduction explains it as a matter of increasing focus and specialisation, citing increases in the Queensland Art Gallery's dedicated staff, collections and archive, and of course audience. 1
The numbers for the APTs have been impressive. Steady audience growth since 1993 peaking at one hundred and fifty-five thousand for APT 1999, with nearly 50% under thirty-five. This year acquisitions provided a basis for 15% of the show, especially key works by Nam June Paik held in the collection. And apart from relying on regular Gallery patrons like the Myers, this APT was also accompanied by a public donations campaign to purchase another central work by Yayoi Kusama.
Previous APTs engaged a vast network across the region to represent diverse activity and, as the catalogue testifies, provided 'a sense... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline