30 years of Conserving the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Abstract

This paper is the result of a collaborative effort that investigates the practice of contemporary art conservation at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane. Our research has been shaped by our active participation in the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) over the past three decades. Through interviews with QAGOMA conservators and gallery colleagues, we have identified the influences of the APT on our workflows. These influences have led to the emergence of areas of challenge, such as the logistics of artwork shipping, integrated pest management, collaboration with artists, preparation of artworks for display, considerations of scale, complexities of conserving contemporary art, and the evolution of documentation systems. The lessons learned from these challenges, as illustrated through case studies, provide valuable reference to other practitioners caring for contemporary artworks.