Contemporary art unites Asia-Pacific artists

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 12/03/2006 1:04 PM  |  Life

Cynthia Webb, Contributor, Brisbane

The attention of the contemporary art world is now focussing on Brisbane, Australia, for the opening of Queensland's new Gallery of Modern Art, 150 meters from the original GoMA building.

These fine buildings occupy a high-profile location beside the Brisbane River and adjoining the Queensland Performing Arts Center, Museum, and new State Library. Beside the center is the much-loved ""South Bank"" -- a huge riverside recreation area of parks and cafes and entertainment venues, which occupies the space where the World Expo 88 was held.

This grand celebration has been organized to coincide with the fifth Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), a contemporary art event that tries brings together artists from the Asia Pacific. Delayed for one year, it will run for six months.

The Queensland gallery has substantially built up its collection from previous APT events. The last APT was in 2002, with some 220,000 people coming to see the art works and many other events and activities on the program.

This year's APT features 37 participating artists and two multi-artist projects including the Pacific Textiles project. The list includes artists from China, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Australia, India, New Zealand, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, and New Zealand and the Pacific.

Only one Indonesian artist has been selected to exhibit at this year's event -- the young Yogyakarta art student Eko Nugroho.

""It is the force and quality of the work that matters. We've decided to represent each artist in depth and made the decision to be more selective about the number of artists in the APT,"" Suhanya Raffel, the head of Asian, Pacific and International Art explained. In APT 2002, only one Indonesian artist, Deri Dono, was invited.

The APT was launched in 1993 and intended to become a forum for expanding and presenting the diverse methods of art within Asia and the Pacific. In the inaugural APT, nine artists represented Indonesia: Dadang Christanto, Heri Dono, Nyoman Erawan, FX Harsono, Sudjana Kerton, A.D. Pirous, Ivan Sagito, Srihadi Soedarsono and Dede Eri Supria. In 1996, five Indonesian artists participated in the event before it went up to eight in 1999.

""We consulted widely with contacts, conducted extensive research, and invited several Indonesian artists to meet with us in Singapore so that we were able to intensively consider their work.

""We do not regard the APT as an exercise in national representation -- Eko is representing his own practice, not his country,"" Raffel said.

Similarly, the numbers of artists from each country are not meant to indicate the level of activity in contemporary art in any particular region.

""We look at emergent themes and interests and curate the exhibition along those lines. We think Eko's work is particularly interesting at this time for this exhibition as it resonates with the work of a number of other artists included in the show,"" Raffel said.

In Yogyakarta Eko works in diverse media, including paintings, murals, videos, animation, and handmade ""Zines"" featuring collage and drawings. He has a considerable knowledge of graphic techniques and technology, and since 2000 he and friends have produced an amusing ""Zine"" entitled Daging Tumbuh, which addresses the many pressing contemporary issues on the minds of young Indonesians.

Eko has participated in other international shows, including Have We Met?"" in Tokyo, in 2004/5, and- Contemporary Art from South East Asia"" in Berlin, where he created a neighborhood mural with a group of young local people. Eko explores socio-political issues through his art, and his website states that he is interested in the fact that people in Indonesia, including himself, seem to be ""lost in freedom"".

The Queensland Art Gallery has a reputation for breaking new ground and it is continuing that tradition by introducing an especially chosen cinema program for the first time to be screened in the brand new Australian Cinematheque, which also has an adjoining space for related exhibitions.

This is the only art museum in Australia, which has such a facility. Surely this recognition by an Australian Art Gallery, of film as a major contemporary art form, is well overdue. It could be argued that cinema is the most influential art form of the 20th century, for its incredible development since its birth in Paris in 1895, and for its ability to reach a mass audience.

The enormously popular Jackie Chan of Hong Kong, action choreographer, director, writer and actor, is the big name film artist featured this year, for his enormous contribution to the region's cinema arts.

His very popular films could be described as 'urban action cinema' and are a blend of mime, martial arts, stunts and slapstick comedy. He has therefore, been compared to the great film comedians of the silent era, such as Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, for his physical skills, and creative use of ""props"" such as ladders, chairs, fans and fabrics in the action sequences.

The Cinematheque will also present the most important historical program of Chinese film ever to be screened in Australia. Hong Kong, Shangahi: Cinema Cities will demonstrate the interconnected film histories of these two cities. There will be silent era classics, street dramas, musicals and melodramas of the 50s and 60s. Another program of films is entitled, Japan Fantastic: Before and Beyond Anime.

Children have not been forgotten, and in the January school holidays there is a major program of workshops and performances with some of the artists, designed to entertain and include the kids, and screenings of Japanese animation films, many of which feature breathtaking creativity and artistry.

For more on the triennial festival and Eko's works go to: www.asiapacifictriennial.com www.ekonugroho.or.id

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