In Conversation at the Pah Homestead Artist Shigeyuki Kihara

The James Wallace Arts Trust

MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday 26 September

In Conversation at the Pah Homestead Artist Shigeyuki Kihara and Writer Lani Wendt Young

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Saturday 6 October, 11:30am, Drawing Room The 21st Annual Wallace Art Awards 2012, Paramount Award winner Shigeyuki Kihara will discuss her award winning digital video performance Galu Afi: Waves of Fire (2012). To expand on the discussion, Kihara has invited writer Lani Wendt Young, author of Pacific Tsunami – Galu Afi, Marfleet Printing & Publishing (2010) to join her in this conversation.

On Monday 3 September Kihara was announced the 2012 Paramount Award winner, by Rt Hon Sir Don McKinnon in an awards ceremony held at the Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre. As her part of her prize Kihara receives a 6 month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York, USA. The 2012 Awards were judged by prominent art practitioners – Warwick Brown, Derrick Cherrie and Sam Mitchell.

The silent performance video work entitled Galu Afi: Waves of Fire (2012) is an extension of Kihara’s recent solo dance performance and video work entitled Taualuga: The Last Dance (2005). Galu Afi explores the ancient Samoan dance form of taualuga as choreography, with Kihara dressed in the guise of a demure Samoan woman in Victorian mourning dress. This choreography describes the movements of the Tsunami in September 2009, which took the lives of more than 189 people in American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga.

In 2009, Lani Wendt Young was commissioned to research and write her first book, the narrative non-fiction account of the disaster which devastated the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Northern Tonga. The printing of Pacific Tsunami – Galu Afi was funded by the Australian government and all proceeds from the book go to survivors who shared their stories for the project.

“This book is about survival. Page by page it lovingly shares the voices and experiences of those who survived, those who did not and those who helped in the recovery.” – Head of State of Samoa, Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Tupuola Tufuga Efi

This floor talk is one of many events occurring at the Pah Homestead on Saturday 6 October – together with the Puketapapa Local Board, the Wallace Arts Trust is hosting Pah Homestead Community Day, a celebration of Puketapapa's/Mt Roskill's cultural, creative and community heritage, 10am-5pm.
The 21st Annual Wallace Art Awards 2012 Travelling Finalists exhibition will be exhibited at the Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Auckland from 4 September to 11 November 2012; the exhibition will then travel to Pataka Museum and Wallace Gallery Morrinsville.

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