The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is currently hosting Rising Voices, an exhibition that attempts to condense three decades of contemporary art from across Asia, Australia and the Pacific into just three rooms. This ambitious show draws from the Queensland Art Gallery's Asia Pacific Triennial, a massive survey that spans multiple continents and countless Indigenous cultures. While the result is a fascinating collection of works, the cramped presentation leaves much to be desired.
A Rich Tapestry of Indigenous Art
The opening room immediately immerses visitors in a vibrant array of bark cloth paintings from Papua New Guinea, Indigenous Australian abstracts, shark sculptures from the Torres Strait, and Tahitian textiles. Each piece carries deep cultural significance: the geometric compositions by Lila Warrimou and Pennyrose Sosa encode clan affiliations and ancestral marks, while Tahitian artist Aline Amaru's quilt narrates her husband's dynastic lineage. These Indigenous and First Nations artists are undeniably the heart of the exhibition.
Historical and Political Burdens
Many works confront the legacy of colonialism. Elisabet Kauage depicts Melanesian figures in traditional headdresses aboard Captain Cook's ship, while Sri Lankan artist Pala Pothupitiye overlays colonial maps with paint to expose British injustices. Brenda V Fajardo's paintings show Filipino women enduring under Spanish rule. Political oppression also looms large: Svay Ken painted quietly through Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, Heri Dono's cubist pieces challenge Indonesian dictatorship, and Maryam Ayeen with Abbas Shahsavar portray a couple using drugs to cope with life in contemporary Iran.
Spirituality and Resistance
The exhibition concludes with spiritual works from Mongolia and Japan, but the overarching theme is art as resistance against tyranny, injustice, and oppression. Artists across this vast region use their craft to critique, satirise, and express identities and histories. The result is both fascinating and often beautiful.
Disappointing Presentation
However, the exhibition design undermines the art's impact. The bright, colourful works are displayed under dull, grey lighting that feels more suited to a funeral home. A single looping piano ballad, mournful and loud, suggests visitors are not expected to linger. The real issue is the scale: three rooms are woefully insufficient. Each segment—Pakistani miniature painting, Indigenous Australian photography, Papua New Guinean textiles—deserves a full exhibition. With only single artworks from Iran, Mongolia, Australia, Japan, and beyond, there is no cohesive narrative. The show feels like a glimpse into a vast world rather than a proper celebration. To do justice to this incredible diversity, the V&A should have gone big and given these works the space they deserve.
Rising Voices runs at the V&A South Kensington, London, from 16 May to 10 January.
