Please join us for an online talanoa with some of the contributors to the publication Paradise Camp by Yuki Kihara edited by Natalie King and published by Thames & Hudson for New Zealand’s presentation at the 59th Venice Biennale.

Interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara is the first Pasifika and Fa'afafine artist to be presented by New Zealand at the prestigious 59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, with a ground-breaking exhibition of new work that addresses some of the most pressing issues of our time. Kihara's work interrogates and dismantles gender roles, consumerism, (mis)representation, and colonial legacies in the Pacific. Edited by Natalie King, who has commissioned provocative essays from contributors from around the world, Paradise Camp contextualizes Kihara’s lifetime of works, which puncture and expose queer and question dominant narratives, turning so-called history on its head.

This talanoa will feature fa’afafine artist and poet Dan Taulapapa McMullin, professor of art studies at the University of Phillipines Patrick Flores and Emeritus Professor and Ruānuku or Venerable Elder scholar of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre for Research Excellence Ngahuia Te Awekotuku PhD FAWMM MNZM. Discussing their contributions to the publication, alongside the ‘Paradise Camp’ Creative Team –Artist Yuki Kihara, Curator Natalie King and Assistant Pasifika Curator Ioana Gordon-Smith.

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This online talanoa is part of the Talanoa Forum: Swimming Against the Tide, an artist-led gathering that aggregates artists, curators, scholars, activists, community leaders and policymakers to extend the themes from ‘Paradise Camp’ by Yuki Kihara into a series of critical talanoa/conversations under the entitled ‘Swimming Against the Tide’ lifted from a quote by the late Māori New Zealand filmmaker Merata Mita, whose work explored the political tensions in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1970s and the 80s which brought issues such as Indigenous sovereignty and gender equality to the fore. Mitaʻs words orient the talanoa to explore how localized strategies including art, activism and policy are being developed to address the global concerns of our times.