Graham Fletcher 

Graham Fletcher, an artist whose oeuvre is confidently in a state of transformation, is currently putting the finishing touches on a Doctorate of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Graham’s academic achievement comes through as he explains his work, the ideology and influence of cultural theorists and various artists that inform his art. Graham’s research of his Pacific Island heritage focuses primarily on mythological and material culture; however this ‘research’ “must be channelled through painting, it has to be driven by art. That way, I am most impassioned about it.”Samoan heritage is “always my starting point and, if not, then it is my ending point.” But that does not remove him from the European history of art; rather it provides a particular perspective.

Graham’s work draws from Europeans such as Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, and the

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Surrealists that used Pacific motifs. He explains, “I wanted to learn from them, they are artist models for learning as well as a catalyst to take issue”. Quarantine (2000) is a  prime example of taking up issues. Graham looked at diseases and viruses introduced into the Pacific Islands by European explorers and through colonisation, “and explored this by transforming the white cube of the gallery into quarantine zone in which his virus paintings are isolated. The viewer, upon entering this quarantined area, is metaphorically exposed to contamination to find themselves similarly in the position of Pacific peoples during colonisation.”[i] The stylized imagery of diseases were further developed into Bad Medicine (2001) which responded with the cures that were versions of DNA structures or chemical structures depicted through stylised paintings.

Ampicillin

These series examined and confronted a history of dependence in the Pacific Islands. While thematically the works are a direct response to Graham’s Samoan and European heritage, visually the series, painted over tapa, are abstract compositions of bright colours and tactile surfaces. “The paintings in Bad Medicine operate as an ironic commentary about disease prevention, control and treatment, for although the diseased painterly surfaces that made up the Quarantine series are now overlaid with possible cures, all of these diseases were preventable in the first place. Both the thick enamel surfaces and the return of colour in this series of paintings are tied to the idea of the synthetic, the plastic and the man-made. The paintings become themselves bad medicine.”[ii]

Graham’s art negotiates his cultural heritage without privil

The eter

eging Samoan or European culture; instead he “pits the two halves against each other”[iii]. As demonstrated through The Eternals (2007) which reveals a consciousness of insider/outsider struggles laden with contemporary and colonial gazes. Eternals is a contemporary re-generation of Oceanic history in which Graham has created paintings and sculptures based on photos he took while exploring the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Graham confronts the history of appropriation of Oceanic objects as this Samoan/European artist collected his own cache of ‘artefacts’ long since taken from the Pacific Islands to be placed in the European-style museum, only to be captured by a cosmopolitan explorer (of sorts), and re-appropriated for his own objective in a practice acquired from those Europeans.

Graham’s re-evaluation of ceremonial masks, sacred figurines of pre-missionary gods and goddesses, weaponry, and spirit dolls continues a progression (or perhaps regression) of appropriation while emphasising the ‘otherness’ of museums through the shadowed, almost gloomy paintings and plinth congested with relics of cultures from distant realities across the enormous Pacific Ocean. Graham does not pretend to re-produce the relics; instead he creates stylized paintings that emphasise the shadows of the Pacific Masterpieces hall at the Museum and the mystique of the sacred and skilfully crafted pieces of history. The plinth of carvings engages the sculptures he photographed on a conceptual level but Graham does not dare to imitate the skills that would take a generation to hone. Rather Graham juxtaposes traditional and contemporary in an individual artwork. The Eternals are an insightful and creative addition to Graham’s journey discovering the magic and mystical of his culture so that he might invest it into his paintings with sensitivity and tactility.

Eternals 1

Eternals 2

Graham’s work is included in various public art collections including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. He has received numerous prestigious awards such as Waikato National Art Award and Wallace Awards and he is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery.

To visit Graham Fletcher's website please Click here.