Image courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Genesis 9:16 (After Gauguin), 2022
Hahnemühle fine art paper mounted on aluminium
73.2 × 91.5 cm
Kihara assembles a group of Fa‘atama (in the manner of a man) in rainbow-coloured outfits seated across a bench holding various props such as a woven fan and conch shell. Referencing Gauguin’s Ta Matete, 1892 – the marketplace of social gathering in Papeete – the figures sit side by side in both images, possibly modelled on tomb frescoes. Yet Kihara expands the reference by assembling a garrulous gathering that riffs off Western rainbow pride – as well as the symbolism of the rainbow in Sāmoan culture as a bridge from the mortal to the divine world – while provocatively satirising the original.
Yuki Kihara discusses Paul Gauguin and Paradise Camp
Paul Gauguin
In Gauguin’s paintings, Kihara noticed uncanny similarities to Fa’afafine. In Paradise Camp, Kihara upcycles Gauguin’s works using Fa‘afafine models to represent her own vision of Paradise.
