The Big Idea | Interview with Natasha Matila-Smith
“I felt the pressure to address colonisation or perform activism through art. It’s already inherent in my body. That's just not something you always want to think about when you're making art.”
Auckland artist and curator, Natasha Matila-Smith was recently accepted as a curator for ‘The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT10). This will involve working part-time for the next two years, preparing a show to be part of over 70 artist projects at APT10 in 2021.
Tautai Contemporary Arts Trust put the call out for “an innovative Pasifika curator”, a new partnership with Creative New Zealand and the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) to develop Pasifika curators internationally.
While Matila-Smith is tight-lipped about the artists that will be involved, she says she gravitates towards working with contemporary Pacific artists who don’t necessarily have cultural identity at the centre of their work.