The Art of Shigeyuki Kihara: A Research Symposium
Saturday 4 May 2013, 9:00 to 4:30
Hutton Theatre, The Otago Museum

This event is free of charge and is open to the general public

The recent award of the Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award and a New Generation Award from the Arts Foundation signals Shigeyuki Kihara’s growing recognition as a significant international artist, whose dynamic career includes, amongst others: a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2008); performances staged at such leading institutions as the Musée du Quai Branly, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand; and works featured in the Asia Pacific Triennial, Auckland Triennial and the upcoming Sakahan Quinquennial held at the National Gallery of Canada in May 2013.

Of Samoan and Japanese heritage, Kihara interrogates the ways that art, performance, and the public interact and prompt dialogue about understanding the complexities of humanity. Her oeuvre includes photographs, dance performance, video installations, and interactive community performances. Kihara’s work comments on issues such as colonialism, European representations of Indigenous peoples, gender, globalization, sexual minorities in the Pacific, and tourism.

Organized in conjunction with the mid-career survey exhibition Shigeyuki Kihara: Undressing the Pacific, on view at the Hocken Collections until June 8, this symposium will broadly explore Shigeyuki Kihara’s creative work. An international group of speakers will consider Kihara’s art and the critical issues that it raises from a diverse range of disciplinary approaches and cultural perspectives, including Japan, Samoa, Australia, and the United States.

Schedule of Presentations

Session One: 9:00 to 11:00

Associate Professor Erika Wolf, University of Otago
“The Art of Shigeyuki Kihara: An Introduction”

Daniel Michael Satele, University of Auckland
“Shigeyuki Kihara’s Anachronisms”

Bernida Webb-Binder, Cornell University (USA)
“The Alternative Modernity of Shigeyuki Kihara”

Yayoi Mashimo, Japan Lutheran College/Tokyo Union Theological Seminary
“Kihara in the Classroom: A Pedagogic Challenge to the Art History Survey Course in Japan”

Session Two: 11:30 to 12:30

Keynote Address
Ron Brownson
Senior Curator, New Zealand & Pacific Art, Auckland Art Gallery
“Shigeyuki Kihara and the Shadow of Photography”

Session Three: 1:30 to 3:00

Dr. Mandy Treagus, University of Adelaide
“Shigeyuki Kihara’s Culture for Sale and the History of Pacific Cultural Performance”

Andrew Clifford, Centre for Art Research, University of Auckland
“Shigeyuki Kihara and the Performance Archives”

Dr. Jonathan Marshall, University of Otago
“Ambiguous Returns: Ghosts and Spectres in the Work of Shigeyuki Kihara”

Session Four: 3:30-4:30

Keynote Address
Dr. Katerina Teaiwa, Pacific Studies, Australian National University
President, Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies

“The Art of Talanoa: Dialogue, Provocation and "the Space between" in Kihara's Work”

Sponsored by the Cultures, Histories and Identities in Film, Media and Literature Network and hosted by the Department of History & Art History, University of Otago. With support from the Asia:NZ Foundation.

Please do forward this announcement.

For further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me (erika.wolfotago.ac.nz).