BRISBANE, Australia -- After visiting the first edition of Brisbane's triennial celebration of regional contemporary art in 1993, the eminent Singaporean critic T.K. Sabapathy was impressed by what he saw, and also a tad jealous.
"The Asia Pacific Triennial recently convened in Brisbane provides useful lessons," he wrote in a paper lamenting Singapore's then listless art institutions and anemic attempts at regional exhibition-making. "Yes, it was a blockbuster event. Why was this so? Because there was vision, because there was purpose, because there was drive," Sabapathy noted.
