APT9 Exhibition Report

Clockwise from top: Ellie Buttrose with APT9 artist Zahra Imani, Tehran, Iran / Photograph: José Da Silva; Women’s Wealth Co-Curators Ruth McDougall and Sana Balai, Panguna, AROB, April 2017 / Photograph: Regius Nakin; Sawangwongse Yawnghwe in his studio, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2017 / Photograph: Zara Stanhope The Asia Pacific Triennial’s ongoing success and reputation is built on a solid foundation of curatorial research. To keep abreast of new developments in contemporary art, Gallery staff travel regularly throughout the region, building extensive networks. This allows curators to liaise directly with artists in their home countries and to commission new works and projects for the exhibition. In research for APT9, Gallery staff travelled within Australia and internationally to Aotearoa New Zealand, Bangladesh, China, Guam, Hawai‘i, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. In addition to allowing artworks to be selected for the exhibition, this travel facilitated crucial meetings with artists and professional contacts, contextual research in the field and discussions around partnerships and commissions. Outcomes of these visits informed the development of every aspect of the exhibition and its accompanying programs and publications. The Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory board, and the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, an initiative of the Australian federal, state and territory governments, provided vital funding to support curatorial research and travel for APT9. In addition, we are grateful for the support of DFAT’s Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant in funding research towards Women’s Wealth. APT9 RESEARCH 11 APT 9 RESEARCH