The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (GACPS) is a collaborative project by Western Australian artists Abdul Abdullah, Casey Ayres and Nathan Beard. The project is supported by the Next Wave Kickstart 2011 program for inclusion in the 2012 Next Wave Festival, The space between us wants to sing. The project will be hosted by the NGV Studio in the Ian Potter Centre adjacent to Federation Square in May 2012 for the festival duration.

GACPS will comprise of an 'embassy' space for a fictional pan-Asian empire, loosely based upon Japan's geo-political ambitions in World War II. The three artists will inhabit this Orientalised installation space as ambassadors for this fictional empire, complete with elaborate costuming. During the festival, the Federation Square atrium surrounding the NGV Studio, and the installation itself will act as the site for live events and cultural demonstrations involving Asian cultural performers and community groups based around Melbourne.

The embassy, it's artifacts and these performances held in the space will elaborate upon the mixed Asian-Australian heritages of the three collaborating artists, in order to reflect upon discourses of nationalism, identity and multiculturalism in a critical and humorous way.

We hope to raise $3000 from Pozible to go towards research and development. This would allow us to source objects to dress the embassy, manufacture costumes and develop new photographic and video works to be exhibited in our festival outcomes.

                                                           

Please visit our website http://gacps.net for further developments about the GACPS project as they occur.