April 08, 2015
Video reclaims Pacific face
Artist Lisa Reihana says her major new video work was a chance to reclaim representations of Maori and Pacific people.
in Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015, will premiere at the Auckland Art Gallery Te Toi o Tamaki in May.
It’s based on a 200-year old French wallpaper Reihana spotted in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra which presents an idealised view of the Pacific as a tropical paradise.
She says while it was a beautiful object, it would have given Europeans of the time a totally false view.
"Because I’ve had a history in animation and looked at reclaiming our voices and our look and speaking for ourselves. I decided I really wanted to remake this wallpaper using video technology to bring it all to life and to care what we sound like and represent ourselves to the world in a new way" says Lisa Reihana.
in Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015 has taken six years to make, involving more than 100 dancers, animators, technicians and costume makers, and it will be screened as a 25-metre long by four- metre high installation.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH LISA REIHANA CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=Mjc5Mzg=
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com