Three major presentations of Pasifika artists from Aotearoa New Zealand are taking place in Europe this summer. Yuki Kihara’s critically acclaimed exhibition Paradise Camp, curated by Natalie King and presented at the New Zealand Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. FAFSWAG present three site-specific works at documenta fifteen. Rosanna Raymond and Jaimie Waititi present Vā Tamatea: the inaugural Birmingham SaVĀge K’lubroom at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
Yuki Kihara at the 2022 Venice Biennale (until November 27)
Small island ecologies, climate change, queer rights, Gauguin’s gaze, intersectionality and decolonisation; these are just some of the topics explored by award-winning interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara for the New Zealand pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Located in the Artiglierie, a central location in the Arsenale, Paradise Camp comprises 12 tableau photographs featuring a cast of Samoan Fa’afafine (Samoan for “in the manner of a woman,” Sāmoa’s third gender), repurposing and upcycling paintings by the late post-impressionist French artist Paul Gauguin that are believed to have been inspired by Sāmoa.
Kihara’s politically urgent and creatively astute exhibition curated by Professor Natalie King, includes archival research, photography, video and socially engaged practice, such as the Firsts Solidarity Network. Paradise Camp eloquently and provocatively investigates a range of critical issues that impact Fa’afafine people’s lives, including the intertwinements of colonisation, intersectionality and climate catastrophe.
Yuki Kihara is renowned for delving into the complexities of postcolonial histories in the Pacific and interrogating Western misinterpretations from the perspective of the Fa’afafine community, to which she belongs. Kihara’s exhibition is told through this unique lens, drawing attention to often untold, marginalised histories and issues facing her community.
Yuki Kihara is the first Asian, Pasifika and Fa’afafine artist to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at Biennale Arte.
FAFSWAG at documenta fifteen, Kassel (until September 25)
FAFSWAG, the Pasifika artists collective, work across interdisciplinary forms and genres, to activate public and digital space, and challenge the lack of representation of Queer and Indigenous people in the creative industries.
FAFSWAG, invited as members of the lumbung by ruangrupa and the Artistic Team, present three site-specific works at documenta fifteen. These new and existing works draws on their connections to ancestral practices of storytelling and indigenous cosmology.
ATUA is an augmented-reality sculpture standing in the rotunda of the Hessisches Landesmuseum. Created by artists Tanu Gago and Jermaine Dean, it investigates “the connection—ruptured by violent colonization and suppressed throughout modernity—between ancestral divine beings and queer Indigenous folk.”
ALTERATION is a moving image installation at Hübner-Areal which draws on a narrative-based digital practice.
The third work is a mixed-media archival exhibition at Stadtmuseum Kassel which ranges from large mixed-media pieces to portraiture by Pasifika and queer artists. This “collection is a platform for engaging with collective organising and resource-sharing.”
Participating artists: Elyssia Wilson Heti, Falencie Filipo, Jaimie Waititi, Jermaine Dean, Moe Laga-Toleafoa, Nahora Ioane, Pati Solomona Tyrell, Tanu Gago, Tapuaki Helu, Tim Swann.
SaVĀge K’lub at Birmingham 2022 Festival (until October 30)
The SaVĀge Kʻlub—established in 2010 by artist Rosanna Raymond—is a convergence of Pasifika makers, queer indigenous and savage vessels birthed in the tentacles of the great Wheke, separate but collective. Vā is a Samoan concept referring to space, defining it as active, binding people and things together in reciprocal relationships. Reclaiming the gentlemen’s clubs of the same name first established in London in the 19th Century, SaVĀge K’lub poses the question: what might it mean to be a savage today?
Artists Rosanna Raymond and Jaimie Waititi present Vā Tamatea: the inaugural Birmingham SaVĀge K’lubroom in the Industrial Gallery at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. The installation forms part of The Healing Gardens of Bab curated by Fierce Festival.
Vā Tamatea is interested in the rupture of the Vā that was brought about by the exchange of tāonga (treasures) during “first contact” between European explorers and Polynesian peoples. Working with curators from the Birmingham Museum, to bring together tāonga (treasures) from SaVĀge K’lub members and Birmingham’s Oceanic collection with contemporary works, installation and spoken word, the SaVĀge K’lubroom presents a lush, earthy and playful space to gather and connect in, activated by a series of performances, events and workshops.
