Zhang Xu Zhan’s wildly inventive stop-motion puppetry centres on a darkly comic world of animal outcasts. Based on correspondences between folktales across cultures, Compound eyes of tropical 2020–22 installed in the eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial, is an animation that hybridises stories in which a small, clever animal tricks a larger predator into helping them cross a river. Zhang Xu’s protagonist is a ‘remix’ of a Java mouse-deer and a fox, variously menaced by crocodiles, buffalos and crabs from different versions of this classic narrative. These cultural transits are amplified by the video’s dramatic, percussive soundtrack, played on-screen by Indonesian gamelan and Taiwanese folk-drum orchestras made up of a host of tiny creatures. As the animals momentarily reveal human dancers supporting them, it becomes apparent that the entire scenario is an elaborate costumed performance inspired by Chinese dragon and lion dances, Japanese marionettes and the animal-costumed yi zhen troupes of Taiwanese temple festivals. Working in joss-paper, Zhang Xu draws on his generations-old family trade of crafting sculptures from incense-infused paper to be burned in ceremonies and festivals. His puppets and sets, arrayed in dioramas or positioned throughout an atmospheric exhibition space, provide lavish accompaniment to a story rich in cultural references, philosophical reflection and mischievous humour. Watch | Zhang Xu Zhan takes you behind-the-scenes Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024 Asia Pacific Triennial 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025 Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane, Australia Free entry

Aotearoa New Zealand's Artists for Waiapu Action — shortened to AWA — which means ‘river’ in Te Reo Māori — is a collaboration between photographer Natalie Robertson and tohunga taiao restoration ecologist Graeme Atkins. They share whakapapa (genealogy) to Ngāti Pōkai people, and seek to use art to restore cultural and environmental relationships with their ancestral Waiapu River. In their project, He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka 2024, installed in eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial, AWA retrieve indigenous ecological knowledge from museum archives to revive the practice of building stone fish traps, known as pā tauremu, to re-story a relationship with the Waiapu. Joining the pair, Lionel Matenga — a tohunga whakairo (skilled carver) and net weaver — replicated a 4.5-metre kūpenga (fishing net) documented in a journal written in 1923. In 2023 and 2024, this kūpenga was attached to a pā tauremu using the stakes and brushwood of kānuka and mānuka trees in the Waiapu as AWA, along with community members, attempted in vain to catch fish in the sediment-laden river. Watch | AWA discuss their project Watch | Installation time-lapse A life-sized replica of these fishing technologies forms the centre of AWA’s installation for the Asia Pacific Triennial. Photographs by Robertson, along with an accompanying website, locate the geographical context with Waiapu cultural histories co-authored with Abraham Karaka. An underwater video recorded by Alex Monteith, with an immersive soundtrack by Maree Sheehan, poetically transports audiences into the space of belonging, culture and community cohesion, albeit within a devastated river environment. In Robertson’s words: We are a weaving, cord-making, net-making, fishing people. This is our heritage. We reiterate the value of enacting cultural survival and revival every time a net is put out into the river. This project was assisted by Radio Ngāti Porou, Te Amokura Productions, Australia’s Mānuka, Just Thinking Out Loud, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongerewa, Ngā Pae o Maramatanga (New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence), Creative New Zealand, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau / AUT University, Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Raukūmara Pae Maunga and The students of Ngata Memorial College. Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024 Art that echoes history Asia Pacific Triennial 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025 Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane, Australia Free entry

For their installation 'He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka' 2024, AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action) revitalises customary net-making and stone fishing weir-building, enabling members of their hapū (clan) and iwi (tribe) to reconnect with the river and its health. They aim ‘to “re-story” lifeways, linking creative practices with ecology to perpetuate cultural and environmental relationships to the lower reaches of the Waiapu’. Artists for Waiapu Action — shortened to AWA, which also means ‘river’ in te reo Māori — is a collaboration between photographer and scholar Natalie Robertson and tohunga taiao restoration ecologist (knowledgeable ecologist) Graeme Atkins, formed to advance action for the Waiapu river from the mountains to the sea through art. Robertson and Atkins share whakapapa (genealogy) to Te Whānau a Pōkai-Pōhatu and Tīkapa Marae, a hapū (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Porou. For their project in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial, they collaborate with Lionel Matenga, also of Ngāti Pōkai, a tohunga whakairo (skilled carver) and net-weaver. Abraham Karaka brings language and histories, Alex Monteith creates underwater videos and Maree Sheehan generates sonic landscapes. Seventy artists, collectives and projects from more than 30 countries feature in the eleventh chapter of the flagship QAGOMA exhibition series, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Bringing compelling new art to Brisbane, the Triennial is a gateway to the rapidly evolving artistic expression of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is QAGOMA's (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art) flagship exhibition series. 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 30 Nov 2024 – 27 Apr 2025 Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art Free entry https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/apt11 AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action), Aotearoa New Zealand est. 2023 'He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka' 2024 Installation view ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ Courtesy: The artists, Radio Ngāti Porou and Te Amokura Productions This project was assisted by Radio Ngāti Porou, Te Amokura Productions, Australia’s Mānuka, Just Thinking Out Loud, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongerewa, Ngā Pae o Maramatanga (New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence), Creative New Zealand, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau / AUT University, Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Raukūmara Pae Maunga and The students of Ngata Memorial College. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia © Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees, 2025 https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au #qagoma

Artists for Waiapu Action — shortened to AWA, which also means ‘river’ in te reo Māori — is a collaboration between photographer and scholar Natalie Robertson and tohunga taiao restoration ecologist (knowledgeable ecologist) Graeme Atkins, formed to advance action for the Waiapu river from the mountains to the sea through art. Robertson and Atkins share whakapapa (genealogy) to Te Whānau a Pōkai-Pōhatu and Tīkapa Marae, a hapū (sub-tribe) of Ngāti Porou. For their project in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial, they collaborate with Lionel Matenga, also of Ngāti Pōkai, a tohunga whakairo (skilled carver) and net-weaver. Abraham Karaka brings language and histories, Alex Monteith creates underwater videos and Maree Sheehan generates sonic landscapes. For their installation 'He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka' 2024, AWA revitalises customary net-making and stone fishing weir-building, enabling members of their hapū (clan) and iwi (tribe) to reconnect with the river and its health. They aim ‘to “re-story” lifeways, linking creative practices with ecology to perpetuate cultural and environmental relationships to the lower reaches of the Waiapu’. Seventy artists, collectives and projects from more than 30 countries feature in the eleventh chapter of the flagship QAGOMA exhibition series, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Bringing compelling new art to Brisbane, the Triennial is a gateway to the rapidly evolving artistic expression of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is QAGOMA's (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art) flagship exhibition series. 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 30 Nov 2024 – 27 Apr 2025 Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art Free entry https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/apt11 AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action), Aotearoa New Zealand est. 2023 'He Uru Mānuka, He Uru Kānuka' 2024 Installation view ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ Courtesy: The artists, Radio Ngāti Porou and Te Amokura Productions This project was assisted by Radio Ngāti Porou, Te Amokura Productions, Australia’s Mānuka, Just Thinking Out Loud, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongerewa, Ngā Pae o Maramatanga (New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence), Creative New Zealand, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau / AUT University, Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Raukūmara Pae Maunga and The students of Ngata Memorial College. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia © Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees, 2025 https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au #qagoma