by Yuki Kihara, Natalie King, Iona Gordon and Allan Haeweng
During severe lockdown in 2020, a group of us formed a Pacific Reading Group comprising Yuki Kihara (interdisciplinary artist who is representing Aotearoa New Zealand at 59th Venice Biennale 2022), Natalie King (curator of Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp), Ioana Gordon-Smith (Wellington-based assistant curator for the Venice Biennale) and Allan Haeweng (Kanak curator in New Caledonia). We met weekly over zoom from Samoa, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, conversing across time zones and waterways as a way to read collectively in spite of the challenges of deferrals and delays in delivering the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Reading, listening and exchanging through dialogue became a working methodology and underpinned the curatorial process. The Creative Team formed an alliance as time became attenuated and travel restrictions increased. We found other ways to conjoin through a bibliography of texts as well as guest presenters, invited by Kihara to tell our stories of triumph, advocacy, action and combatting discrimination and colonial systems of oppression. We slowed down during this time of crisis, relishing time to read together, share resources and build new solidarities. Despite confinement, we were not alone. Zoom screens replaced in-person talanoa as we tried to find ways for human connectivity.
Collectively, we delved into Epeli Hau’Ofa’s essay Our Sea of Islands and Albert Wendt’s Towards a New Oceania, traversing ideas of wayfaring, small island ecologies, Oceanic thinking, intersectionality and the flamboyance of camp. Reading together became a methodology for the creative team to work collectively and examine some of the urgent issues in Yuki Kihara’s exhibition Paradise Camp. As the first Pasifika, fa’afafine (transgender) and Indigenous artist to represent Aotearoa New Zealand, we framed our work with laughter and listening; we marveled, contested, dialogued and thought about how text can inform curatorial and creative research, leading us towards Paradise Camp at the Venice Biennale.
Source: un Projects
