Viewing Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific

Knowledge travels.

At the V&A, Rising Voices brings more than 40 artists from 25 countries across Asia, Australia and the Pacific into a landmark exhibition of contemporary art. Presented in partnership with Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, the exhibition draws on more than three decades of the Asia Pacific Triennial, with over 70 works spanning sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, weaving and body adornment.

Many of the works have never been exhibited outside the region. Rather than flattening the Asia Pacific into a single story, the exhibition foregrounds First Nations perspectives, ancestral knowledge, local materials and the complex political histories that move through one of the world’s most culturally and linguistically diverse regions.

The show unfolds across sections titled Re-Visioning History, Enduring Knowledge and Evolving Faith, spanning migration, conflict, colonial legacies, ceremonial customs and spirituality. Highlights include Michael Parekōwhai’s life-sized fibreglass sculpture of a Māori security guard, Pala Pothupitiye’s reimagined map of Sri Lanka’s Kalutara Fort, shell necklaces by Lola Greeno, porcelain busts by Ah Xian and Takahiro Iwasaki’s suspended model inspired by Japan’s Byōdō-in Temple complex. Expansive and long overdue in London, this show is about histories that travel and knowledge that endures.