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City Gallery
30 May - 22 Aug 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
'Shigeyuki Kihara was born to defy categorisation, her very existence blurs and challenges the organisation of mainstream thought and practice,' curator Jim Vivieaere has declared.
Indeed Kihara seems to slip through categories with fluidity: born in Samoa, her Japanese father was Buddhist and her Samoan mother was Catholic. She spent her first five years in Indonesia, then lived in Japan, arriving in New Zealand via Samoa at the age of 16. In addition to this diverse cultural mix, Kihara is a 'Fa'afafine', a uniquely Samoan form of transgender which can be best described as transsexual in Western terms.
Kihara's photographic and performance work is concerned with
identity and identity- shifts. Using herself as a model, the
portrait series 'Vavau' presents a range of characters from
traditional Samoan legends, simultaneously parodying Western
velvet paintings and paying homage to her ancestry. In addition
to her practice as a photographer, Kihara is part of the Auckland-based
interdisciplinary group Pasifika Divas performing at various
arts festivals around the world. Kihara first came to public
attention as a young fashion design graduate, when the Museum
of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa purchased her collection
of ready-to-wear t-shirts, which replaced well-known corporate
logos with local indigenous take-offs.
Emma Bugden
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