The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art held at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art since 1993 is, as its name suggests, a celebration of contemporary art from Australia, Asia and the Pacific. With this significant exhibition series now in its 31st year and 11th chapter, the QAGOMA Research Library is releasing a relational database which provides researchers with the ability to explore the interconnectedness of the ever-growing list of individuals, groups and projects which are part of the Triennial’s history.
The database provides access to the Asia Pacific Triennial Archive by way of the involvement of individual contributors ranging from exhibiting artists, performers, collaborators, curators, authors, interlocutors, and others to key Gallery staff. In developing this database, the Library aims to transform ongoing access to the archive by providing an interactive resource that fosters further learning, scholarship, and engagement with the Asia Pacific Triennial exhibition series.
To mark the eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial (30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025) and the release of the Triennial Archive database, the Library is highlighting its documentation of eight artists who are exhibiting in this year’s Triennial and who are also past participants.
Philippines artist Julie Lluch (b.1946), who exhibited her painted terracotta sculpture Doxology 1993 (illustrated) in the first Triennial in 1993, is returning this year together with her daughter, Kiri Dalena (b.1975), who exhibited the photographic series Erased slogans 2015 (illustrated) in the eighth Triennial in 2015. This year, the two artists are part of the Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago: Roots and Currents multi-artist project which focuses on contemporary art practices from the island of Mindanao and the nearby Sulu Archipelago region located in the southernmost part of the Philippines.
Julie Lluch
Kiri Dalena
In the second Triennial (27 September 1996 – 19 January 1997), Aotearoa New Zealand artist Brett Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui b.1967) exhibited Kahukara 1995 (illustrated) and Tekohao o te ngira 1995 (illustrated), as part of the Pacific men’s waka collective in the Queensland Art Gallery’s Watermall. The concept of the waka (‘vessel’ in Māori), often used in Aotearoa New Zealand to illustrate the country’s cultural diversity, also became a metaphor in the second Triennial for the histories, voyages and migrations of the Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesian peoples. For this Triennial, Graham is presenting five sculptures which speak to structures created by both British and Māori during the New Zealand wars.
Brett Graham
Eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial
Also returning to the current Triennial is Mai Nguyễn-Long (b.1970), who participated as a researcher and interpreter for the second Triennial (27 September 1996 – 19 January 1997), visiting Vietnam on a research trip and translating for the Việtnamese artists while they were in Brisbane for the Triennial. For the 11th Triennial, Nguyễn-Long is exhibiting her ‘Vomit Girl’ sculptures (illustrated) which reflect her conflicted sense of identity and belonging growing up as an Australian-born daughter of a Vietnamese father and Australian mother and living in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.
Mai Nguyen-Long
Jumping forward to the sixth Triennial (5 December 2009 – 5 April 2010), Việtnamese artist Bùi Công Khánh (b.1972) exhibited as part of The Mekong (illustrated), a project which featured works by eight artists from different generations working in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Việt Nam, and Laos. These works tapped into social and political change, the importance of religion and traditional values, memories of brutal histories, and responses to everyday experience. For the current Triennial (illustrated), the artist is showing a group of new, large-scale vases alongside his first venture into film, a tribute to the ceramic village where he works.
Bùi Công Khánh
Nepalese artist Hit Man Gurung (b.1986) whose work Yellow helmet and gray house (from ‘I have to Feed Myself, My Family and My Country’ series) 2015 (illustrated), in the eighth Triennial (21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016) draws attention to the thousands of workers departing Nepal for substandard conditions on development sites in the Persian Gulf has returned for the 11th Triennial as a co-curator with Sheelasha Rajbhandari of the regionally co-led project TAMBA, a survey of work by Nepalese artists, activists, and indigenous communities.
Hit Man Gurung
For eighth Triennial (21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016) Nomin Bold (b.1982), was one of four young contemporary Mongol zurag painters showing Labyrinth game 2012 (illustrated) and Tomorrow 2014 (illustrated)). Her deep connections with Mongolia’s cultural heritage continues in her current work for this Triennial, Life cup 2023, in collaboration with Ochirbold Ayurzana (b.1976).
Nomin Bold
Eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial
Finally, in our list of returning artists, we have Alex Monteith (Clan Mitchell, Clan Monteith b.1977) who participated in the tenth Triennial (4 December 2021 – 25 April 2022) as part of the ACAPA Pasifika Community Engagement Project (ACE), with the work Kā Paroro o Haumumu: Coastal Flows / Coastal Incursions 2012 (illustrated), an ongoing transdisciplinary art project that reconsiders landscapes and material removed from middens associated with tauwhare (shelters) and other sites throughout Te Mimi o Tū Te Rakiwhānoa (Fiordland) coastal and marine areas of New Zealand’s South Island, Te Waipounamu. In the 11th Triennial, Monteith is participating in He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka 2024, a collaborative installation by AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action)
Alex Monteith
Eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial
Since its inception in 1993, the Asia Pacific Triennial has significantly shaped the art landscape in Brisbane and beyond. Its commitment to highlighting the dynamism of contemporary art practices has fostered a greater understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural expressions from across our region. As the Triennial series continues to evolve and grow so will the Asia Pacific Triennial Archive held in the QAGOMA Research Library.
With the archive now more accessible through the newly developed database, a treasure trove of diverse stories, experiences, contributions, and effects can be explored from individual perspectives. This enhanced access aims not only to illuminate the narratives of past...
Spanning both the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), the artists in ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ consider knowledge and tradition in its many forms while developing their own approach to storytelling. They do this by creating their own unique and innovative style.
With so many works on display — more than 500 by 200 individuals — we look closely at five artworks to unravel the stories, uncover their deeper meaning, and look closely at the detail.
Wardha Shabbir
Along with its role as a centre for miniature painting, the city of Lahore itself has shaped Wardha Shabbir’s practice over many years. Trained in this highly disciplined genre, she continues to draw on its conventions while creating works that experiment formally and conceptually beyond the framework of miniature painting. She carefully documents the city’s common trees, natural vegetation, and gardens where nature is subdued and curated, and is drawn to Lahore’s sharp yellow light, which she uses in her paintings alongside other distinctive tones.
In Paths to Portals 2024 (illustrated & detail), fences stand as metaphors for the boundaries affecting women’s lives. The wild shrubbery reflects the struggles women face, and pathways reference the Islamic concept of ‘sirat’ to reflect the artist’s own journey as a woman living in Pakistan. Shabbir is also drawn to the mysterious energy and amoeba-like forms of black holes found throughout the universe, and the way they create a veil surrounded by radiating or burning edges.
Muhlis Lugis
Printmaker Muhlis Lugis’s large-scale woodcuts explore his cultural heritage by reflecting and recontextualising aspects of Bugis customs, philosophy and mythology. Grounded in the teachings and culture of the Bugis community of South Sulawesi, his meticulous compositions reaffirm the significance of cultural practice and identity amid the ever-changing landscape of Indonesian society.
For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Lugis presents a series of traditional ancestral stories from a contemporary Bugis perspective. Throughout his 'Sangiang Serri (Goddess of Rice)' series of works, Lugis illustrates significant events and rituals dedicated to the rice goddess detailed in the influential epic Bugis narrative La Galigo.
Sangiang Serri (Entertaining the Sangiang Serri) 2021 (illustrated & detail) portrays the Buginese Mappadendang ritual, a joyful performance of gratitude for abundant harvests. An important expression of cultural identity, the ceremony consists of beating a lesung (mortar) and alu (pestle) in dendang (rhythm) to produce a beat pleasing to the goddess, which forms the musical accompaniment to the Padendang dancers. The observance of Mappadendang is a significant community gathering of unity and cultural celebration
Varunika Saraf
Varunika Saraf references a range of historical worldviews, mythologies and art histories as a means to navigate today’s political and social situations. Her works examine contemporary realities of marginalisation, social injustice and proliferating violence, particularly in response to recent events in India.
The process of making her own colours is an important part of Saraf’s works. She creates pigments and develops watercolours from specially sourced materials, meticulously crafting colours that reflect her feeling towards the subject she paints.
Thieves in the forest 2024 (illustrated & detail) sees Saraf focus her attention on the threat of environmental extraction, alluding to broader issues of politicised violence and social complacency. The painting captures a lush forest inhabited by creatures, spirits and mythological figures. Armed officers, land surveyors, flag bearers and gangs carrying political placards encroach on the perimeter of the forest, threatening anything in their way. Saraf seeks to uncover the social and political systems that perpetuate violence toward nature, and the cultural damage that occurs in their wake.
William Bakalevu
William Bakalevu discovered his passion for painting at 37 years of age, after relocating from Fiji’s Suva city to his ancestral village of Nakorolevu. Inspired by local history and daily life, Bakalevu began creating domestic murals to visually document village stories. This endeavour marked the beginning of his lifelong dedication to retelling local legends and proverbs through art. Bakalevu has continued to refine his innovative use of texture and vibrant hues to recontextualise Fijian legends, blending narrative and emotion through new symbols and techniques.
For the Asia Pacific Triennial, a collection of Bakalevu’s works is on display which spans the past decade of his practice and highlights his distinctive style. Viavia 2024 (translating to Wannabe) (illustrated & detail), explores the Fijian proverb ‘Eda Ika kecega, is eda dui nubunubu’, which likens people to fish dwelling at different depths. In this piece, Bakalevu reflects on his unique artistic journey, acknowledging his desire to explore new directions while remaining deeply rooted in his cultural heritage.
Rithika Merchant
Rithika Merchant’s ethereal worlds are born from her consideration of how narratives, myths and ideas resonate across different peoples, cultures and religions, and how these shared stories inform our imaginings of the future. Her illustrations speculate on what might happen as the world becomes less habitable for humans, and what new worlds, creatures and relationships might then evolve. The artist’s fantastical worlds are inhabited by curious beings, whose evolution, values, beliefs and technologies Merchant carefully develops.
For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Merchant’s most recent series ‘Terraformation’ with Temporal Structures 2023 (illustrated & detail) follows her beings as they leave their planet and begin terraforming their new homes — that is, shaping new planets to be more habitable. Drawing on scientific, fictitious and mythological ideas, each work in the series acts as a proposition for sustaining life in a new world.
Edited extracts from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024
Art that needs a closer look
Asia Pacific Triennial
30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Brisbane, Australia
Free entry
