CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SAFFRONART; OSAMA NAKAMURA; SAM CRANSTOUN, GARETH SANSOM, AND MILANI GALLERY, BRISBANE; SAFFRONART38
DATEBOOK: ASIA PACIFIC
ART+AUCTION MARCH 2016 (^) | BLOUINARTINFO.COM
ADELAIDE
MAGIC DOWN UNDER
The oldest survey of contemporary art in the country, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian
Art runs through May 15 with works by nearly two dozen artists. Examining the idea of the
“magic object,” an amalgamation of the Russian Constructivist concept of faktura (a belief in
the ability of objects to communicate with their materiality) and the 16th-century Wunder-
kammer, curator Lisa Slade explains that the exhibition is about “the idea of
a room of wonders with curious and compelling properties, and the desire to
grasp the world and hold it close in order to fathom its secrets and mysteries.”
Venues presenting exhibitions include the Art Gallery of South Australia,
the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, and the Santos Museum
of Economic Botany. “One could say that material and spatial intelligence
are abiding characteristics
of the antipodean contemporary
art world,” says Slade of the
biennial’s niche, particularly in
relation to this year’s theme.
But she cautions over-
romanticizing the work as a
consequence of Australia’s
geographic and political identity.
Works by Michael Zavros,
Fiona McMonagle, Abdul-
Rahman Abdullah, and others,
she says, are resolutely in conver-
sation with the abiding concerns
of contemporary art on the world
stage. —JULIET HELMKE
Island Art
SETOUCHI, JAPAN
ONLINE
Saffronart presents “Living Traditions:
Folk & Tribal Art” March 9 and 10, an
auction of approximately 75 pieces,
including the Nandi bull sculpture from
Karnataka, above, and a bronze Bhuta
mask, left, from
Tu lu n adu , S out h
Karnataka, both
20th century.
Though the
category’s
market has
lagged, Saffron’s
ceo Hugo Weihe
explains the
house’s aim “is to
establish a new forum
to showcase and
contextualize these
brilliant achieve-
ments and make
them accessible in
a new way.” —SR
CARVING A NICHE
Ogijima’s Soul, 2010, by Spanish
artist Jaume Plensa, welcomes visitors
to the titular island with a lattice-
work of letters from world languages.
Among curator
Lisa Slade’s
selections for the
biennial is Gareth
Sansom’s A
universal timeless
allegory, 2014.
first launched in2010, the Setouchi
Triennale kicks off its third edition on
March 20, sprawling across 12 islands in
Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, a languishing
postindustrial region centered on steel,
shipbuilding, and oil rei ning. The event is
an ongoing experiment in how local and
international artists can intervene in social
issues by working closely with residents.
“The participating artists collaborate
with locals who have been suffering from
depopulation, aging, pollution, and the
negative legacy of modernization,” director
Fram Kitagawa explains.
Accordingly, the triennial’s success is
seen less in terms of visitor numbers or
big-name artists than in more gradual shifts
in the social life of the region. “On Ogijima,
a closed primary school was reopened
as a result of four families who moved there
after the last triennial,” notes Kitagawa.
“On Oshima, which houses a sanitarium
for leprosy patients, visitor access had
been extremely limited, but since the i rst
triennial, there have been a number of
activities encouraging exchanges between
former patients who still live on the
island, and outsiders, especially children.”
This year, the triennial includes projects
inspired by bonsai and a traditional
lion dance called shishimai. Both of these
initiatives seek to strengthen links with
neighboring Asian countries by fostering
local pride in the culture of the Seto
Inland Sea and Kagawa Prefecture.
—DARRYL JINGWEN WEE