ArtAsiaPacific — May-June 2017

57

Previews

Reports artasiapacific.com

TANG NANNAN, Billennium Waves, 2015, still from

HD video: 4 min 3 sec. Courtesy the artist.

TRACEY MOFFATT, Hell, 2017, from the series “Passage,”

C-print on gloss paper, 105.5 x 156 cm. Courtesy the artist, Roslyn

Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York.

LISA REIHANA, In Pursuit of Venus [Infected], 2015–17, still from

HD video with color and sound: 64 min. Courtesy the artist.

Responding to Christine Macel’s Venice
Biennale concept of “Viva Arte Viva,” which
suggests the eternal nature of art, the China
Pavilion, curated by conceptual artist Qiu Zhijie,
seeks to encapsulate the long, 5,000-year-
history of Chinese culture. Four participating
artists—Wan Tianwen, Yao Huifen, Tang
Nannan and Wu Jian’an—will reinterpret
classical pieces, such as a Song Dynasty
(960–1279) silk painting of a skeleton magic
show and a scroll of water drawings, entitled 12
Water Maps (1190–1224). The latter work will
be juxtaposed with Tang Nannan’s large-scale
video projection Billennium Waves (2015), which
captures detailed views of undulating waves
from the Pacific Ocean.

Tracey Moffatt’s photographs and video works

often navigate sensitive topics of racism,

trauma and misrepresentations in media. For

her solo presentation at Venice, entitled “My

Horizon,” curated by Natalie King of the Public

Art Melbourne Biennial Lab, Moffatt explores

fictional narratives of displaced refugees.

Addressing issues of loss and longing, along

with identity and estrangement, Moffatt will

display two photographic series and videos,

with scenes that recall the aesthetics of old

films, flowing seamlessly between the artist’s

memories, family history and myth. The works,

set in undisclosed locations, will present the

refugees’ search for new beginnings.

In the historic Tesa dell’Isolotto, a naval

warehouse at the Arsenale, Auckland-based

artist Lisa Reihana will showcase new photo-

based works and sculptures alongside her

Signature Art Prize-nominated installation

In Pursuit of Venus [Infected] (2015–17). The

panoramic video is an animated re-creation

of the popular French neoclassical wallpaper

Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804–05),

which illustrates the lives of Pacific islanders

as reported by European explorers, La Pérouse

and James Cook. Reihana hints at this forgotten

past of colonial agendas, challenging imperialist

stereotypes and reimagining the narrative

between Oceania and the “emissaries.”

AUSTRALIA

CHINA NEW ZEALAND