Internationally renowned artist Yuki Kihara will present new work set in Heretaunga at MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri from December 8.
Ms Kihara's interest in the region was inspired by the late Tama Huata's account of how the waka Takitimu was originally built in her homeland of Sāmoa – many generations before carrying the ancestors of Ngāti Kahungunu to Aotearoa.
Building on this ancestral connection, Ms Kihara embodies the symbolic figure of Salome in haunting photographic artworks featuring sites across Hawke's Bay.
"Salome was the perfect character for the project because she directs our focus to various issues at hand," explains Kihara.
"The audience engages with the world through Salome's lens, and where she had visited prior to arrival in Heretaunga gives us clues to what she could be thinking or feeling."