ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS FIRST MAJOR U.S. EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART FROM NEW ZEALAND AND PACIFIC ISLANDS

PARADISE NOW? CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE PACIFIC

February 18 through May 9, 2004
Media Preview: February 17 at 9:30 a.m.

Sofia Tekela-Smith, Savage Island Man with Pure, 2003

This spring, Asia Society presents the first major presentation in the United States of contemporary art from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific will showcase 45 works by 15 leading contemporary artists from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Torres Strait Islands, Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and Niue. The exhibition reflects the cultural uniqueness of the Pacific and of New Zealand, in particular, where a rich intersection of cultural influences coalesce.

Since the crossing of the Pacific by Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan in the 16th century and subsequent voyages by British and French explorers into the 18th century, the Pacific Islands have occupied a vivid place in historical imagination as “paradise.” This idea of the Pacific paradise still resonates today. Paradise Now? offers an alternative vision of the these islands, one at odds with this enduring perception. Working in video, installation, sculpture, painting and photography, the artists in Paradise Now? address issues relating to migration and diaspora, indigenous land rights, cultural heritage and environmental degradation.

“The Asia Society is proud to be presenting this cutting-edge exhibition of works, which is the first U.S. exhibition of contemporary art from New Zealand and the Pacific,” said Vishakha N. Desai, Senior Vice President of the Asia Society and Director of the Museum and Cultural Programs. “Not since the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented Te Maori in 1984 has there been a significant museum exhibition on art from this region. This is a rare opportunity to present North American audiences with a window on the diverse and exciting art being created in New Zealand and the Pacific.”

Ruth Watson, Lingua Geographica, 1988

“New Zealand is the cultural, social, economic and political hub for the whole region and the center for exciting work by a new generation of artists,” says exhibition curator Melissa Chiu, Curator of Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art at Asia Society. “The nation’s fascinating cross-section of European, Maori indigenous and Pacific Islanders exists nowhere else in the world, and its unique multiculturalism has not yet been explored by an exhibition of this scale.”

Questions relating to migration and the diaspora are paramount in the exhibition. Most of the artists represented in Paradise Now? live outside their countries of origin or have lived away for significant periods. Their experiences are not uncommon, for more than one in nine Pacific Islanders lives abroad.

Pakeha/palagi artists (the Maori and Samoan terms for non-islanders) from the Pacific have also been included in the exhibition. Their inclusion reflects the history of European settlement in the region since the 17th century and recognizes that their work engages critically with myths of the Pacific as paradise.

Exhibition artists

Works by the following artists are included in the exhibition: Mohini Chandra (Fiji/United Kingdom); Shane Cotton (New Zealand, Maori); Downwind Productions (Hawaii); Bill Hammond (New Zealand); Niki Hastings-McFall (New Zealand, Samoa); John Ioane (New Zealand, Samoa); Michael Parekowhai (New Zealand, Maori); Peter Peryer (New Zealand); John Pule (New Zealand, Niue); Lisa Reihana (New Zealand, Maori); Sofia Tekela-Smith (New Zealand, Rotuma); Ken Thaiday (Torres Strait Islands); Denise Tiavouane (New Caledonia); Michel Tuffery (New Zealand, Samoa) and Ruth Watson (New Zealand).

Selected works in the exhibition

Michael Parekowhai, Poorman, Beggarman and Thief (detail), 1994

Placed at the museum entrance is a work by Michael Parekowhai, called KapaHaka, a series of 15 life-size casts of the artist’s brother, who is a security guard. Parekowhai’s work, dealing with stereotypes of Maori identity, will serve to guard the entrance of the museum.

A video installation by Maori artist Lisa Reihana, titled Native Portraits n.19897 is positioned at the gallery entrance. The work comprises a series of video monitors in a gateway, each one showing a portrait of a Maori person. The work shows both contemporary and traditional representations of Maori.

Nowhere is the image of the Pacific Islands as paradise manufactured and maintained so effectively as in the tourism industry. This is the subject of Historic Waikiki (2001), a multimedia work by Downwind Productions, a collaborative project between Hawaiian-based artist Gaye Chan and the art historian Andrea Feeser. The piece consists of tourist packets containing small bits of concrete, purportedly from Waikiki’s hotels and resorts, packaged and sold in stores in Waikiki as if they were authentic historical souvenirs. The work includes a website (www.downwindproductions.com) featuring a virtual tour of Waikiki, stories of the island’s history, and anecdotes from residents about their memories and experiences of life on the islands. The website and bogus tourist knick-knacks focus attention on the cultural and environmental changes that have occurred in Waikiki since European settlement and raise questions about the unconditional embrace of tourism as economic salvation.

The Indian-Fijian artist Mohini Chandra’s video Studio (2003) takes the viewer into Indian-owned commercial photographic studios across Fiji, where people have their portraits taken against backdrops of idyllic natural environments. The video is an exploration of the diaspora experience of Indians living in Fiji. Chandra’s work has previously been shown in the United States, in the exhibition Out of India: Contemporary Art of the South Asian Diaspora at the Queens Museum of Art in 1998.

The New Zealand born artist Ruth Watson’s works are about cartography and the ways that maps construct our idea of the world. She creates maps based on early historical projections of the globe, particularly those from the 16th century, in which countries were arranged very differently from today. Her work Lingua Geographica (Geographic Tongue) (1996) uses photographic fragments of a picture of her tongue to create a world map in the shape of a heart.

Michael Tuffery’s work O Le Povi Tusa Ma’ataua (2000) is a sculpture of a bull made out of corned beef cans. His medium serves as a metaphor for the changes wrought on Samoan society following the introduction of western foodstuffs after World War II, the fat content and salt levels in the meat causing long-term health problems for Islanders. A work of performance art by Tuffery will be shown following a panel discussion with selected artists participating in the exhibition on Wednesday, February 18, at 6:30 p.m. (see related programming).

Paradise Now? is curated by Melissa Chiu, Curator, Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art, Asia Society, along with New Zealand curatorial advisers Dr. Karen Stevenson, University of Canterbury; Ngahiraka Mason, Auckland Art Gallery; Caroline Vercoe, University of Auckland; and Jim Vivieaere, Auckland artist and curator.

Related Programs: New Zealand and the Pacific Century

Asia Society will present a number of public programs to coincide with the exhibition, along with policy and business related. A half-day business conference focusing on creative industries at the heart of New Zealand’s economic transformation and development will take place on Tuesday, February 24.

A panel discussion of participating artists, Reinterpreting “Paradise”: Views of the Pacific, will be held on Wednesday, February 18, at 6:30 p.m. Moderated by Caroline Vercoe, The University of Auckland, the program is followed by a work of performance art by Michel Tuffery called Moanamalosi (Deep Blue Hue).

A series of contemporary films from New Zealand will be screened at Asia Society: Te Rua (Barry Barclay/1990/96 min./35mm), an unusual thriller by Maori/New Zealand filmmaker Barry Barclay, on Friday, March 12, at 7:00 p.m.; Rain (Christine Jeffs/2001/92 min/35mm) a beautiful, provocative and moving coming-of-age film set on the Mahurangi Peninsula of New Zealand’s North Island, on Friday, April 2, 7:00 p.m.; Savage Symbols (Makerita Urale/2002/55 min./video), a fascinating documentary about the lives of nine Samoan men in urban New Zealand who choose to have the pe'a (an elaborate tattoo) applied to their bodies as a right of passage and cultural allegiance, on Friday, March 19, at 7:00 p.m.; and a series of shorts ranging from comic to dramatic, curated by Susan Talbot, on Wednesday, April 21, 6:30 p.m. For information on programs at Asia Society, visit www.asiasociety.org or call the Box Office at 212.517.ASIA.

Major funding for the exhibition and related programs is provided by Creative New Zealand, W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Lion Foundation, The Christensen Fund, Investment New Zealand, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Tourism New Zealand, Jenny Gibbs, and Harriet Friedlander. United Airlines is the airline sponsor of Paradise Now?

About the Asia Society

The Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution, the Asia Society presents a wide range of programs including major art exhibitions, performances, media programs, international conferences and lectures, and initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education about Asia. The Asia Society is headquartered in New York City, with regional centers in Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia, and representative offices in San Francisco, Manila and Shanghai.

Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City.
(212) 517-ASIA, www.asiasociety.org
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.; Fridays extended evening hours until 9:00 P.M.; Closed on Mondays and major holidays.
Admission: $7; $5 for seniors and students with ID; Free for members and persons under 16; Free to all on Friday evenings, 6:00 - 9:00 P.M.

# # #