Forging Regional Connections—Reflecting on the Artists' Regional Exchange (ARX) at Present

Abstract: This essay reflects on the Artists' Regional Exchange (ARX) and its role and significance in forging and fostering cross-cultural exchange between artists across Australia and Southeast Asia in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Beginning in 1987 and initiated in Perth, the Australia & Regions Artists' Exchange, later titled the Artists' Regional Exchange (ARX), comprised a series of artist exchanges and residencies between Australia and Southeast Asia, alongside associated exhibitions and symposiums. ARX was a vital early platform for forging a shared regional consciousness—among artists, curators and historians—of being in and a part of Southeast Asia. ARX marks a transitional moment prior to the institutionalisation of contemporary Southeast Asian art as seen in major exhibitions such as the APT and the mushrooming of art institutions and collections engaging with the region internationally. In highlighting the significance of ARX almost four decades after its inception, this essay provides a contemporary reading of the project: How can we read ARX now? To what extent is ARX useful in understanding contemporary Southeast Asian art and its histories today? For this essay, archival materials retrieved from the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) are central to my research and writing and help to elucidate important histories of ARX that have yet to be examined. It is also important to highlight that my entry into this research on ARX was developed after conversations with Southeast Asian artists who participated in the exchange project, including Indonesian artists FX Harsono and Moelyono, and Australian artist Pat Hoffie. These conversations led me to the ARX Archives at PICA that had largely remained idle for over 20 years. This essay addresses the significance of ARX within the history of contemporary Southeast Asian art.