Sarjeant Happenings: Challenging our assumptions - Christopher Ulutupu

By Helen Frances

Whanganui Chronicle·

21 Aug, 2023 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Christopher Ulutupu will give a talk in Whanganui on Thursday, August 24. Photo / Jhana Millers

Tylee Cottage artist in residence Christopher Ulutupu is a Wellington-based video artist whose Samoan name, Tulisi, means “tourist”.

In his artwork he plays with ideas around being a tourist and a migrant, exploring European representations of Pacific peoples and the politics of identity. At once humorous, deliberately “absurd” and dreamlike, his work also aims to challenge and stimulate the viewer.

Ulutupu will present a selection of his work at a free talk hosted by the Sarjeant Gallery on Thursday, August 24, 7pm-8.30pm in The Nikaū Room at the Backhouse, 28 Taupō Quay.

The son of immigrants, Ulutupu is of Samoan, Niuean and German descent. Core themes of his work emerged while doing his Master of Fine Arts at Massey University.

“I started looking at postcard images and tourist imaginaries of the Pacific from the early 1900s and found some archival footage - images of bare-breasted Pacific women lying on a beautiful beach amongst palm trees. I was really interested in those images and how they informed and attracted European audiences to visit and live in the Pacific and how some of those histories and dynamics actually spill on to today - how they see Pacific people represented. I play with that a lot in my videos and photography.”

The idea of the Samoan rugby-playing warrior is another common assumption he finds amusing.

“I love playing with people’s assumptions about the work and the narratives I explore. That can be fun.”

Family members - sisters, mother, cousins - rather than trained actors often feature in his videos which are unscripted and spontaneous. He does however choose the settings, at times using green screen technology to create tourist-type imaginary landscapes, and organises a variety of props and costumes in advance, along with storyboards for the crew.

A “diva” character is always at the centre of his work, inspired by the powerful women in his life.

“I grew up in a kind of matriarchy so there’s something grounding about having a powerful female presence in the works, which emerge out of a daydreaming process.”

In Whanganui, he says the principle of being a tourist also applies - meeting new people, seeing the sights such as Durie Hill and Bushy Park, and, sponge-like, just soaking up his experiences of place which inform his creative day-dreaming process.

“The main attraction is the awa itself and its histories. Other artists have responded to the awa as well in many various ways over the years and there’s a rich history of [responses]. The interest lies in trying to find a different way of responding that is my own and the way I approach work.”

One of his projects in 2018, for Scape, came from challenging tourist ideas about the landscapes in which “brown people” are supposed to live.

“I thought of snow and skiing. We did this work where we flew in a helicopter to the top of a mountain and did a lot of beautiful shoots up there.”

Ulutupu’s mother starred in this video. She descends from the chopper in a bridal dress, settles in the snow and lights a cigarette.

“I think people thought, this feels really surreal or seems absurd. It’s to do with the idea that brown people are not the normal clientele who frequent the mountain. You don’t really see them in snow. I think there’s something jarring about that.”

Eight billboards with images from the mountain shoot were displayed around Hagley Park in Christchurch.

“The idea was that they were juxtaposed against the luscious green park and flowers [that contrasted] with the starkness of the white and the snow.”

Ulutupu’s work is rich, multi-layered and thought-provoking. He will reveal more about his work and creative process at the talk.