Dusky geisha tribute to Samoan community

Kihara's work looks at the idea of the Pacific as paradise encapsulated by the female Polynesian body.

The most important creation of an artist in the modern tradition is usually himself or herself.

That is certainly the case with Samoan-Japanese artist Shigeyuki Kihara, whose latest exhibition, Lei Girls, is on show at Whitespace Gallery in Grey Lynn.

In a series of shows Kihara has used photographic self-portraits in various guises to explore themes of identity, ethnography, sexuality and artistic practice. Recent shows have included Vavau, where Kihara was depicted like black-velvet paintings of Samoan gods and goddesses, and Fa'a Fafine: In the manner of a woman, where again Kihara was depicted as both a man and a woman.

Lei Girls - the name could be a pun on the long-running Australian drag show Les Girls - is a series of black-and-white photographs by Wiremu Te Kiri. They were taken of Kihara at her solo performance Milk and Honey at the opening of the exhibition The other day in paradise at the Den Adult Store on Karangahape Rd in September 2003.

"In Pacific cultures we commemorate events with performance, prayer and food," says Kihara - although events at the Pacific Island church around the corner don't involve dusky geishas pouring milk over themselves.

"Because it was in a sex shop, it could also be seen as a re-enactment of a porn video where liquids are splashed over someone's body, but it overlaps with a lot of other ideas. It references ideas of baptism, the colonial gaze, the idea of the Pacific as paradise encapsulated in the Polynesian female body, all presented in the guise of a drag show," Kihara says.

"I have been working round with the whole idea of the representation of the Pacific through the feminine body. That has gone in many directions, from something ethnographic to historic to very contemporary things. Being fa'a fafine myself brings a whole different dynamic into the discourse."

Kihara was born in Samoa in 1975 but her father, a civil engineer, took the family to Indonesia for five years and then to Osaka for the next seven.

"I grew up speaking Japanese. My mother spoke Samoan to me at home, but I don't want to give the impression that because I was born there I have a Samoan cultural upbringing."

When Kihara was 12 the family moved back to Mt Vaea on the Samoan island of Upolo.

"It was a big culture shock for me. The only time I had visited Samoa had been during school holidays, and it seemed like paradise to me. I had to go to the local school and I didn't speak English. My first language was Japanese, I didn't know a word of Samoan - I didn't know I was Samoan until I moved to Samoa. A lot of my artwork is about finding myself in Samoa."

In 1989 the family moved to New Zealand. Kihara studied fashion at Massey University.

"I got bored with fashion because the training was trying to gear us up to go into factories. I wasn't into doing stuff like that."

Instead, Kihara designed T-shirts and started working with photographers, styling shoots for magazines like Pulp, Pavement and Staple.

"That commercial methodology led to artistic practice. I have a team of people I employ so it is no different to putting together a photo shoot for a campaign. I mastermind the whole thing, I fund them and I appear in the photos."

Though artists like US photographer Cindy Sherman are obvious references, Kihara says the work comes from "a Samoan cultural platform", particularly faleaitu or house of spirits.

"Faleaitu is a comedic performance done by men. It includes satire, parody, outrageous comedy where they speak of issues and topics which could be construed as taboo. They act out as animals, they cross-dress, they act out characters.

"Theatre groups such as Naked Samoans and The Brownies can be considered a contemporary form of faleaitu," Kihara says. "People used to say these men were being taken over by the spirits, the spirits enter the body to surface into the mortal world and engage with each other.

"What I do is explore the narratives from being a Samoan. When I reappropriate images from folklore and legend or touch on ethnographic image-making, I am giving tribute to indigenous Samoan spirituality and also commenting on my social environment."

Exhibition

*What: Lei Girls, by Shigeyuki Kihara
*Where and when: Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, to Apr 28