Living Art in Papua New Guinea is a highly visual experience of Papua New Guinea's spectacular cultures and artistic wealth. The visual spectrum and ‘live’ experience is greatly increased with hyperlinks to YouTube video clips, exhibition websites, online catalogues and essays, which extend the text and interpretation of images.

My interest in PNG grew from my childhood and the influence of my parents, Percy and Renata Cochrane, who admired Papua New Guineans and their great diversity of cultures. I have drawn on their archives, the Percy and Renata Cochrane Collection at the University of Wollongong, for some of the images in this book, as well as my own extensive collection of documents and images in the Susan Cochrane Collection at the Fryer Library, University of Queensland.

For many years my Papua New Guinean friends and colleagues encouraged, supported and collaborated with me on exhibition and writing projects.

Artists whose work is illustrated have given their time to informal discussions and interviews, as well as approval to photograph themselves and their art in the interests of presentation and promotion of their work; we work together to expand knowledge of Papua New Guinean art and foster greater appreciation of artists and their art.

Susan Cochrane’s research and fieldwork were assisted by an Established Writer Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts