Paradise Camp: A Talanoa with Yuki Kihara
Sonja has a talanoa with Pasifika artist Yuki Kihara as she speaks on her art and her project Paradise Camp which was exhibited in 2023 at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum exhibition space ( the exhibition closed in Feb 2024).
Yuki Kihara is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent. Through a research-based approach, her work seeks to challenge dominant and singular historical narratives through a wide range of mediums, including performance, sculpture, video, photography and curatorial practice. Kihara lives and works in Sāmoa, where she has been based over the past 11 years.
Yuki's 'work interrogates and dismantles gender roles, (mis)representation and colonial legacies in the Pacific. She was the first Pasifika, Asian and Fa‘afafine (Sāmoa’s ‘third gender’) artist to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at la Biennale di Venezia.'
‘I’m inspired by Powerhouse Museum’s Pacific collections and look forward to presenting new works as part of the Paradise Camp exhibition that questions the idea of modernism as a singular Western heteronormative phenomenon. ’ - Yuki Kihara
Photo credit Gui Taccetti
Sonja, Marqy, Lana and Kikki
