MOANA_4

This is the last major Moana show of the year, and the fourth in an ongoing series highlighting the extraordinary diversity and visual power of a group of artists I’ve come to love working with. Primarily based in Aotearoa New Zealand, the artists include exciting emerging talents such as Sean Hill, Linda Va’aelua, and Ercan Cairns, together with more established artists Dagmar Dyck, Andy Leleisi'uao, Sefton Rani and Raymond Sagapolutele. I’m very honoured to show a new painting by senior Samoan/NZ artist Fatu Feu’u (ONZM), an artist I’ve been wanting to show for years.

It would be easy to lump these artists together, especially under the banner of diversity, or even decolonisation; but those western-imposed ideologies (albeit often well-intended) can often suffocate or subjugate the narratives of the work you encounter. Not here. These are complex and nuanced stories of individual or family circumstances, unique explorations of ideas of ‘home’ and the ancestral lineage that comes with it. Many of these artist were children of migrant workers who emigrated to Aotearoa for jobs and a better life for their families. Almost all working-class in their upbringing, they demonstrate an ongoing, multi-layered, and nuanced exploration of what it means to be displaced –  even embraced – within new cultural contexts.

For the rest of us, especially through western eyes, we get to explore and absorb rich aesthetic riffs from some of the most unique storytellers on the planet – and all the insights, fresh perspectives (and perhaps even contradictions) that come with it.