Artists in the Asia Pacific region were quick to embrace the possibilities of video art as it first began to emerge, and the region is home to some of the world’s leading moving image artists. With techniques that range from the most basic use of a handheld video camera to elaborate, theatrical productions, video continues to enable artists in the Asia Pacific to explore and communicate their social conditions, cultures and ideas on ever-evolving screen-based platforms. In the 1960s and 70s, pioneering Japanese new media artist Takahiko Iimura performed and made experimental films, his first experiments prompted by his introduction to Korean-born media artist Nam June Paik. His practice later developed into installations in which he further experimented with screen media as the emerging medium of video enabled new possibility. Originally shown as part of a six-monitor video installation, Performance: AIUEONN Six Features 1994 explores the incoherent relationship between the vowel sounds and characters of the Japanese alphabet and English. The artist grotesquely distorts the screen-image self-portrait, as he enunciates to camera the vowel sounds of English and Japanese. Iimura’s work captures an artist negotiating new possibilities that video enables in a performance, while providing a playful insight into cultural difference, and yet meanwhile his work is imbued with more conventional aspects of abstract art as it transitions between colour and shape. Video plays only one part of a broader ouvre for Taiwanese artist Joyce Ho, but one in which performative actions can be fastidiously controlled. Ho has been strongly influenced by avant-garde theatre, and in particular has been fascinated with the theatrical device of the prelude — an opening scene that produces a sense of anticipation — and a desire to extend that suspense infinitely. In Ho’s work, there is always another layer to the everyday, and always other ways of seeing the familiar. Shot against a lemon-yellow wall, Overexposed memory 2015 features an actor slowly squeezing and biting into several different pieces of fruit, lingering on their surfaces until they collapse into pulpy mush. To emphasize the effect, Ho subjected the fruit to prolonged boiling, before painting the surfaces in their original colours to create the illusion of ripeness, so that as they break apart, pigment mingles unnaturally with their juices. The theatrical capacity enabled by time-based media like video are also employed in the public sphere, through which interventions into public spaces are executed to create layered messages about social contexts while revealing idiosyncrasies of daily ritual. Tsui Kuang-Yu relies on a spontaneous approach to creating public interventions, relying on the reaction of people and surroundings to examine aspects of urban life and human behaviour in regulated contemporary city environments. A recurrent feature in Tsui’s work is a sophisticated critique of public life, its social groups and urban systems Shot in London and Taipei, Shortcut to the Systematic Life 2002–05 presents a series of intentional misunderstandings of urban architecture and ritual — specifically, that which prescribes where and when to walk, work, exercise or play and how to dress. With a slapstick sense of humour, Tsui’s ideos reflect on the changing city and what it means to live there. A gradual unfolding shapes narrative steeped in symbolism for Neha Choksi’s Leaf fall 2008. It documents an action carried out by a group of rurally based Indian actors who pick the leaves from a large Bodhi tree by hand, leaving behind a single leaf. In a video of the performance, members of the group move around a wooden scaffold and offer comments on their actions, speculating on how the process will change the environment around the tree. The tree becomes a symbol of decay and renewal, part of a collective ritual; the solitary leaf will soon be lost among the tree’s new growth. Throughout the work, the actors offer poetic comment on their action, speculatively at times, self-critically at others. Will the tree’s boughs enjoy the warm sunlight to which they will be exposed? Will birds continue to roost here or will they travel elsewhere? What dark force drives such undertakings? The varying camera angles and astute editing provide a propulsive and poetic viewing experience as the group goes about its curious task. Since its introduction as an artform, video has brought forth a new set of formal and technical devices for artists to test and manipulate, and the field remains one of the most quickly changing forms of artistic production as new technologies of recording and modes of display continue to evolve. Junebum Park experiments with the camera’s view, how the experience can change with angles, depth and scale, and how the factor of time can be manipulated with looping, repetition and layering. Park uses studio production to construct miniature stages and optical tricks in which daily human actions are humorously emphasised as repetitive and banal, such as the comical distortion of urban life referenced in The advertisement 2004. In this work a commercial district is bombarded with the mania of advertising billboards and logos, placed and replaced on the buildings by the giant hands of the artist. Influenced by mime performance and traditional Japanese Bunraku puppet theatre, Park begs the viewer to reconsider the relationship between his performing hands and the miniature objects he appears to be moving. Nathan Pohio is similarly an artist whose formal artistic experiments with video have been recognised internationally. Pohio draws on various photographic and cinematic practices producing images that reveal his playfulness with techniques and materials in creating a unique viewing experience. Rather than depicting a specific place and time, Nathan Pohio experiments with the possibilities of constructing a screen-based experience to elicit a certain feeling, one that encourages viewers to imagine another time and encounter. Landfall of a spectre 2007 is based on a lenticular print of a colonial ship, artfully made to pitch and roll by filming across the reflective and alternating surfaces of the photographic image. The result is a bit like a hologram. The sepia image sets the scene of action...

Fun and interactive, families and children across Queensland can experience free hands-on art-making activities with the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour, presented during the eleventh edition of QAGOMA’s flagship Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, including Asia Pacific Triennial Kids in the Children’s Art Centre, Gallery of Modern Art. Beginning 16 December 2024 in Cairns Art Gallery and Croydon Shire Library, then from 1 January 2025 in more than 180 communities from all 77 Queensland Council areas over 220 venues throughout the state. Seven different artist-designed activities connect young visitors and families with cultures from across Asia and the Pacific, offering younger audiences firsthand experiences with the ideas of artists. The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour brings together a range of activities that celebrate the rich diversity of customs from across the region and includes activities developed in collaboration with artists Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia/Palestine), Etson Caminha (Timor‑Leste), Harold ‘Egn’ Eswar (Malaysia), Brett Graham (Aotearoa New Zealand), Okui Lala (Malaysia), Yim Maline (Cambodia) and Rithika Merchant (India). Dana Awartani Unity within Multiplicity is an activity based on Zellij tile designs — a style of mosaic traditionally found in North African and Spanish architecture and created by arranging small pieces of coloured tile into geometric patterns — in this activity children can create repeating patterns using coloured pencils and geometric templates. Download Unity within Multiplicity activity Go behind-the-scenes as we install Dana Awartani's intricate floor installation at the Queensland Art Gallery Etson Caminha My Kitchen Sounds invites children to experiment with their own sound composition and make music with materials found in the home. When the artist was a child, making music using recycled materials was a source of happiness and fun. Today, he creates sound-based artworks using natural elements, Timorese instruments and electronic equipment. Play My Kitchen Sounds Harold ‘Egn’ Eswar Monster of Wants invites children to create a drawing of a monster that expresses the things they most desire. The artist often draws inspiration from street art to explore personal stories and memories through drawing. Yim Maline A Dream for the Future prompts children to make a drawing that reflects what they dream for the future. The artist creates sculptures from found fabrics which explore her connection with nature. Rithika Merchant If the seeds chose where to grow encourages children to shape a new world by adding elements such as living beings, plants and celestial bodies to a digital or drawn landscape. The artist creates paintings and collages that explore the idea of ‘terraformation’, or ‘Earth-shaping’ — the theoretical process of making a planet fit for human life. Brett Graham In Wakuwaku, children are asked to consider the natural environment where they live and to be inspired by it when designing their own pattern to apply to the surface of two custom template shapes. The artist creates large-scale sculptures and installations that feature traditional Māori patterns. Okui Lala Children can also enjoy two video works featuring bilingual and multilingual students from Brisbane’s West End State School. The artist creates video works exploring language and what is lost or changed when words are translated from one language to another. Participating Venues: 1 January – 30 June 2025 Visit our website for the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour for a list of venues or the participating location for further details: Aurukun Shire Balonne Shire Council Banana Shire Barcaldine Regional Council Barcoo Shire Council Blackall Tambo Regional Council Boulia Shire Council Bulloo Shire Council Bundaberg Regional Council Burdekin Regional Council Burke Shire Council Cairns Regional Council Camooweal State School Carpentaria Council Cassowary Coast Region Central Highlands Regional Council Charters Towers Regional Council Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Cloncurry Shire Council Cook Shire Croydon Shire Council Diamantina Shire Council Doomadgee Aboriginal Council Doomadgee State School Douglas Shire Council Etheridge Shire Flinders Shire Council Fraser Coast Regional Council Gladstone Regional Council Gold Coast City Council Goondiwindi Regional Council Gympie Regional Council Hinchinbrook Shire Council Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council Ipswich City Council Isaac Regional Council Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council Livingston Shire Council Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council Lockyer Valley Regional Council Logan City Council Longreach Regional Council Mackay Regional Council Mapoon Aboriginal Council Maranoa Regional Council Mareeba Shire Council Moreton Bay Regional Council Mornington Shire Mount Isa City Mount Isa City Library Murweh Shire Council Napranum Aboriginal Shire Council Noosa Regional Council North Burnett Regional Council Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council Paroo Shire Council Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council Quilpie Shire Council Redland City Council Library Services Richmond Shire Council Rockhampton Regional Council Scenic Rim Region Somerset Regional Council South Burnett Regional Council Southern Downs Regional Council Sunshine Coast Regional Council Tablelands Regional Council Toowoomba Regional Council Torres Shire Council Torres Strait Island Regional Council Townsville City Council Western Downs Regional Council Whitsundays Region Council Winton Shire Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour is supported by APT Kids Principal Benefactor, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation. Art that goes everywhere Asia Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025