Shigeyuki Kihara: Undressing the Pacific
4 March, 2014 - 13 April, 2014
AV Gallery, Photography Gallery & Master Bedroom
Shigeyuki Kihara, Roman Catholic Church, Apia. Where do we come from? Where are we going? series (2013), c-type print. Image courtesy of Shigeyuki Kihara Studios and Milford Galleries Dunedin
Please join us for the opening of this exhibition on Monday 3 March, 6-8pm.
Undressing the Pacific is a mid-career survey exhibition of photographic and performance works by 2012 Paramount Wallace Arts Trust Award winner Shigeyuki Kihara. Curated and toured by the University of Otago’s Hocken Collections, it showcases key works from Kihara’s artistic career, which now spans more than a decade.
Many of Kihara’s photographic images show the central role of dress as a potent symbol of identity and status. The reference to ‘undressing’ in the exhibition’s title describes her practice of subverting late nineteenth-century photographs of the South Seas. Her Fa’afafine: In the Manner of a Woman (2005) series ‘undresses’ historic images of semi-clad local women that portrayed them as stereotypical ‘native belles’. A specific studio photo of an unknown women posing in an introduced restrictive Victorian mourning dress has inspired the creation of Kihara's alter-ego 'Salome' which features in several of Kihara’s more recent works including the performance work Taualuga: The Last Dance (2006-2011), based on a traditional Samoan lament, and the recent series of black-and-white photographs that reveal the aftermath of Samoa’s devastating Cyclone Evan. The works in this show highlight the complex interplay of globalization, cultural identity and gender politics in contemporary postcolonial societies.
Kihara’s recognition as a significant artist of international repute continues to grow. In 2008 her solo exhibition was presented at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Kihara’s work has also been presented at Asia- Pacific Triennial; Auckland Triennial and the Sakahàn Quinquennial. In 2012 she became a recipient of the New Generation Award from the Arts Foundation, and the Paramount Wallace Art Award that saw her return to New York to undertake a 6-month residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP).