By Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
'The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT8)
During the 2013 national election campaign in Malaysia, Sharon Chin
collected the political party flags that hung on trees, lamp posts and street
signs in her hometown of Port Dickson, and painted over them images of weeds
from her own garden.
In this series, the number of flags from the ruling Barisan Nasional party (blue and white) versus the main opposition People’s Alliance coalition (red, blue and white) is proportional to the number of flags each party erected in Port Dickson during the campaign. Surviving and thriving in adverse conditions, weeds are a symbol of the resolute stubbornness of everyday existence. With their natural beauty and their sense of the uncontrollable and the inevitable, weeds are a powerful metaphor for dissent.
‘We are the weeds . . . we are in the buildings, the cracks, the fields, the roadsides . . . we are many and not alone.’
Sharon Chin discusses her workQueensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Since 1993, The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) has been the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art's flagship contemporary art series. APT has driven the Gallery's focus on the region and enabled the development of one of the world's most significant collections of contemporary Asian, Pacific and Australian art.
The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8)
21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016
© QAGOMA
