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SHIGEYUKI KIHARA RE-OCCUPIES THE GAZE |
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By Ron Hanson |
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A solo exhibition by
Auckland artist Shigeyuki Kihara, recipient of the Pacific Arts
Committee’s 2003 Emerging Pacific Islands Artist Award at the Bartley
Nees Gallery.
Entitled “Vavau – tales from ancient Samoa”, the exhibition features
portraits of the artist posing in different roles taken from Samoan
folklore.
The photographs, with their dark background and focus on the female
form, evoke and re-appropriate the work of the velvet painters, such as
New Zealand’s Charles McPhee. These painters portrayed Pacific women
from what Kihara calls the “colonial gaze”. The women usually appeared
as exotic and erotic.
“What I do is re-occupy that gaze,” she says. “I come from the point of
view of the insider.”
While woman portrayed in velvet paintings are usually passive and
sexually available, Kihara’s characters are aware and self-controlled.
“What I’m doing is something a bit more gutsy,” she says. “They’re not
passive stories either because they all come from traditional Samoan
folklore.”
Kihara’s work has been compared to that of American artist Cindy
Sherman who also portrays herself in a number of different roles.
However, Kihara sees her work as being distinct.
“Sherman’s work is more about how women have been brought up by the
media. But I’m more about being in touch with and finding my own
identity in my Samoan heritage.”
Kihara was in a car accident while visiting her parents in Samoa
earlier this year and had to spend another month there. The time became an
opportunity to further research the folklore that has inspired her work.
“I got a tape recorder and went deep into the villages and then I went to the
old people and I got them to tell me their stories.
“You should have seen their eyes brighten up when I asked to hear their stories
because usually, people my age are more interested in hip hop.”
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‘Le loimata o Apaula – Tears of Apaula’ part of the Shigeyuki
Kihara exhibition at Bartley Nees Gallery. |
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‘Tonumaipea - 2004’ part of the Shigeyuki Kihara exhibition at
Bartley Nees Gallery. |
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‘Fue Tagata – Ghostly bodies’ part of Shigeyuki Kihara
exhibition at Bartley Nees Gallery. |
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Kiahara studied fashion design in Wellington before moving into other areas such
as stage performance, illustration, design and photography.
She first came to prominence when Te Papa purchased her controversial work
“Teuanoa’i – Adorn to Excess” in 2000.
“Vavau – tales from ancient Samoa” was supported with a $6000 grant from the
Pacific Arts Committee.
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Copyright Event Polynesia Ltd.
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