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
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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.
