Cathy's Art Diary

Innovative exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at work by contemporary artists from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. The show sets out to examine how art is understood in those areas and how it draws on and comments on the areas’ histories. The show draws on work from the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary art and is themed by how artists look at their world now, how they reassess their history (cleverly called Re-Visioning History), how they use the knowledge and material of indigenous people and the role of spirituality in the region. Favourite pieces include this beautiful painting of a boat by the Taiwanese artist Idas Losin from 2016, Adeela Suleman's landscapes painted on meat cleavers, Saira Wasim's miniature paintings drawing on Mughal traditions but commenting on wealth and power and Takahiro Iwasaki's floating model of part of   a Kyoto temple complex. Closes 10 January 2027 Review Guardian

Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy the art of islands of the Pacific Ocean. The show was based on the premise that Captain Cook embarked from Plymouth on the first of his journeys across the Pacific Ocean 250 years ago just a few months before the Royal Academy was founded, both events coming from the ideas of the Enlightenment. There were some lovely items in the show but I’m afraid I just couldn’t engage with it. It was well themed and some interesting points were made about the contact between islands and sharing of artistic traditions but somehow it just didn’t do it for me. I’m ashamed to say the highlight of the show for me was that someone was   playing the Red Piano by Michael Parekowhai in 2011 however it amused me when I realised we were getting an Abba medley which was followed by the theme from Top Cat! My favourite piece was the amazing video installation by Lisa Reihana called “The Pursuit of Venus (Infected)”. It mimicked an expensive wall p...