APT9 Exhibition Report

Left to right: Installation view of Iman Raad’s Days of bliss and woe 2018 / Photograph: Natasha Harth; Gallery visitors in front of Hassan Sharif’s Cutting and Tying no.2 2015 / Photograph: Brad Wagner; Brisbane Bougainville Community Group Women’s Wealth performance for APT9 Summer Festival / Photography: Marc Pricop Associating the dissembling of both religion and architecture in her native Thailand, Pannaphan Yodmanee’s installation was interwoven with unique cross-cultural painted references. The collaborative installation in the QAG Watermall by Singaporean artists Robert Zhao Renhui and Donna Ong reflected on our historically constructed perceptions of the natural world, a concern that was also evident at GOMA in Qiu Zhijie’s Map of Technological Ethics 2018, Jonathan Jones’s untitled (giran) 2018, Martha Atienza’s moving image work Our Islands 11°16’58.4”N 123°45’07.0”E 2017 and Anne Noble’s Conversatio: A cabinet of wonder 2018, which contained a living bee hive. New site-specific projects at GOMA included Iranian artist Iman Raad’s colourful and massive mural, Days of bliss and woe 2018, which drew on Persian miniature traditions and South Asian truck painting. Artists from Laos participated in APT for the first time — Bounpaul Phothyzan’s Lie of the Land 2017 was unmissable on the ground floor of GOMA. Yuko Mohri’s Breath or Echo 2017, a programmed sound work, played on customised pianos and other items overlooking Maiwar (Brisbane River). Performances by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner (Marshall Islands), Mithu Sen (India), Latai Taumoepeau (Australia/Tonga) and Enkhbold Togmidshiirev (Mongolia) added to APT9’s action and movement. Another point of distinction was the inclusion of returning artists Shinro Ohtake, Taloi Havini, Peter Robinson and Anne Noble, and senior artists whose work is significant for contemporary art practice, such as Roberto Chabet, Hassan Sharif, Rasheed Araeen and Mao Ishikawa. This combination of emerging artists alongside senior voices, new work alongside major commissions and collaborative projects from across the region culminated in an exhibition of distinct and diverse perspectives that attracted engaged and positive reviews from critics and visitors alike and generated new opportunities for many participating artists. 13 EXHIBITION