About

Celebrating a decade of Kids' APT, the Children's Art Centre presents 17 engaging artist projects and art works displayed across both buildings, including major galleries and the dedicated Children's Art Centre spaces at GOMA. Kids' APT is developed to reflect the themes of the APT exhibition, offering children and families insights into contemporary art across the Asia Pacific region. There are also special art work labels to help young visitors engage with the works on display.

Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan In-flight (Project: Another Country) 2009

Brisbane-based artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan's project for Kids' APT, In-flight (Project: Another Country) 2009 asks participants to make aeroplanes out of found materials. Using the recycled objects supplied, as well as off-cuts and twine, participants are able to construct aircraft within a dynamic activity space. Touching on themes of migration, family and memory, the recycled planes form a giant flock suspended from the ceiling of Gallery 3 in the Queensland Art Gallery.

Ayaz Jokhio 99 Self portraits 2009

Pakistani artist Ayaz Jokhio created a mix-and-match activity based on a self portrait repeated 99 times for Kids' APT. Children are invited to transform an image of the artist by creating many new identities with a wide range of outfits drawn by Jokhio that reference different cultures, uniforms and fashions. Over the course of the exhibition, the series of portraits will become an ever-changing display, reflecting Jokhio's conception of the multiple images and personalities we project to the world in our everyday lives.

Runa Islam Make believe 2009

London-based filmmaker Runa Islam invites children to make their own thaumatrope, also known as a 'turning wonder'. In the process, they are able to discover some of the fundamental concepts behind the construction of moving images. Invented in the 1820s, the thaumatrope, once a popular optical toy, relies on the viewer's persistence of vision and short-term memory to allow images to merge and become one.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Patterns of infinity 2009

Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is inspired by the spiritual significance and the mesmerising visual effects of Islamic geometric patterns. Patterns of infinity is a computer touchscreen interactive in which participants can create colourful geometric designs. Children are able to discover the complexity and beauty of Islamic patterns and see how Monir's installations and mirror mosaics draw inspiration from these time-honoured design principles. An online version is available on the Gallery's website.

Wit Pimkanchanapong I, you, we 2009

Wit Pimkanchanapong's I, you, we is a multimedia interactive in which the participants become the subject. Images of two people's faces are captured on camera in the activity space, and with a little technical magic, their facial features are fragmented and recombined to form a new portrait, with surprising results. Posters of the collaborative portrait I, you, we can then be emailed home or to a friend as a memento of the participants visit to Kids' APT.

Zhu Weibing & Ji Wenyu The Hidden Garden 2009

Young children and toddlers can find a place to play in Zhu Weibing & Ji Wenyu's fabric environment, designed in the style of a traditional Chinese walled garden. Children are invited to enter the artists' world and admire the tranquil surrounds, tend to fallen autumn leaves, arrange flowers in garden beds and play with goldfish and frogs in the small pond. This enchanting place is entirely constructed in Zhu and Ji's preferred medium of soft sculpture.

Minam Apang Scribbling with script 2009

Minam Apang's drawing activity for children reflects the artist's interest in calligraphy, storytelling and exploring language in unexpected ways. Apang's selection of words and characters was sourced from scripts ranging across the Asia Pacific designed to trigger children's imaginations and encourage them to look at text from a different point of view. Engaging with ideas about visual perception, every child's response to the scripts tells a different story.

YNG (Yoshitomo Nara + graf) The Play House 2009

YNG's The Play House is a small cubby house environment designed by YNG that attracts curious young visitors, encouraging them to explore the space, view the growing display of trinkets and sit down and contribute a drawing to the collaborative sketchbooks based on themes selected by the artists. Visitors are invited to come back and bring along a small object to add to the growing display of personal treasures.

Ho Tzu Nyen H the Happy Robot 2009

Singaporean artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen premiered his new film H the Happy Robot in Kids' APT. The film is a modern fable about the nature of technology and traces the life of a cardboard robot named H. H learns to speak and then ventures out into the world, rapidly becoming obsolete. Set in a future Singapore, the film is screened in a theatre shaped as an oversized cardboard box, inviting children to join H in his world.

Hiraki Sawa Every Little Thing Moving 2009

Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa presents a multimedia interactive which enables young visitors to join in and play with the imagery in his film, elsewhere 2003. By moving three-dimensional objects over an image-sensitive tabletop, participants are able to interact with and contribute to the film. Additional sound effects are played in tandem with the movements, enabling children to create their own version of the artist's story.

Thukral & Tagra Hi! I am India 2009

Indian artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra designed a Do It Yourself (DIY) activity project set in a spectacular environment within the Children's Art Centre. The artists invite children to select from an array of custom-made stickers, designed to introduce children and their families to contemporary and traditional Indian visual culture. The sticker designs feature people, street scenes, vehicles and architecture. Using framed backgrounds designed by the artists, participants are able to create collages of daily life in India today for display

Charwei Tsai Water Project 2009

Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai's film for children complements the artist's video projection Hand washing project 2009. Designed to evoke the sensation of touch, the interactive is a sequence of projected images over the hand basins in the Children's Art Centre bathrooms. The footage of sea creatures is intermingled with children's hands as they wash them, offering a new experience of an everyday activity.

Shirana Shahbazi Still life: Coconut and other things 2009

To create Shirana Shahbazi's painting for Kids' APT, children took part in a workshop to discuss the history of the still life genre and composed a series of their own still life arrangements. These feature tropical fruits, flowers and vegetation readily available in Queensland, and photographs from the workshop were sent to the artist for selection as a basis for her painting. Shahbazi worked with billboard painters in Iran to create an immense canvas that is on display in the Children's Art Centre.

Marcel Meltherorong Singsing with Marcel 2009

Calling all vocal talent! Pacific reggae musician Marcel Meltherorong, from the band XX Squad, invites everyone to 'singsing', which means to sing loud in Bislama — one of the many languages spoken in Vanuatu. In this multimedia interactive, children have the chance to meet Marcel on film and sing along to an excerpt of his popular reggae track, Children's Day. Performances are recorded in the karaoke-style booth and played back on the big screen in a video clip format for everyone to watch and applaud.

Rich Streitmatter-Tran My River, My Future: A Children's Drawing Project 2009

The connections young children have with their local river is the subject of this project, which features drawings by children from countries in the Mekong River region, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma). The first stage of the project was a series of drawing workshops where children were asked to reflect on and describe their relationship to the local river. The collected drawings form a display as part of Kids' APT, while additional drawings are circulated between the three communities, encouraging insights into the lives and rivers of other children. The second stage of the project takes place at the Summer Spectacular in January, where children from Brisbane can depict their relationship to the Brisbane River for display and circulation amongst the other workshop participants.

Mansudae Art Studo The Fairy of the Kumgang Mountains 2009

The fairytale The Fairy of the Kumgang Mountains is brought to life in this large scale mural installation. Spanning the length of the Children's Art Centre corridor, young visitors are able to experience this treasured tale through six beautifully detailed paintings by the Mansudae Art Studio. Accompanied by narration in Korean, The Fairy of the Kumgang Mountains takes young visitors on a fantastical journey through evocative scenery drawn from the folklore of North Korea (DPRK).

Gonkar Gyatso Funky Buddhas 2009

Based in London, Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso's Funky Buddhas installation comprises large white Buddha sculptures set in a semicircle, recalling temple sculpture. Young visitors are invited to apply ready-made puffy stickers of all things popular and familiar to APT kids. Colourful stickers of pets, fruit, and symbols of love and happiness cover the pristine Buddhas over the course of the exhibition, highlighting the artist's interest in the ways contemporary culture continually absorbs images and ideas.

For more information, visit APT6