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Leading up to the opening of the 59th Venice Biennale, Kihara embarked on a dialogue with Paradise Camp curator Natalie King, discussing early influences, colonial portraiture, research methodologies, and empowering the Fa’afafine community in her new work.
“Just as Gauguin used Sāmoa as source material, disguised with Māohi titles, I did the reverse by repurposing his paintings created during his time in French Polynesia between 1891 and 1903. Paradise Camp is also a provocation against the stereotypical ways we understand place, gender, sexuality, and their intersectionality: it aims to raise questions about how we can decolonise ways of being in the world”, says Kihara.
Read the conversation in full here on OCULA’s website.
