The Inner Lives of Islands

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Source: Auckland Council

Yuki Iiyama, Moomin Family goes on a picnic to see Kannon, 2014 (still). Single channel video. 21 mins 21 secs. Courtesy of the artist & WAITINGROOM, Japan.

Shireen Seno, Shotgun Tuding, 2014 (still). Single channel video. 15 mins 57 secs. Courtesy of the artist.

Artists

  • Emerita Baik (Aotearoa NZ)
  • Yuki Iiyama (Japan)
  • Sione Monu (AU/Aotearoa NZ)
  • Shireen Seno (Philippines)
  • Christopher Ulutupu (Aotearoa NZ)

The Inner Lives of Islands explores storytelling instincts from artists from across the Asia-Pacific and how these might reflect ideas of nationhood and diasporic identities from this region.

The artists in this exhibition produce fictions, mine familial histories and respond to external media conventions to make sense of their presence in the world from the vantage point of the Pacific Ocean.

In the same way we may perceive dreams to subconsciously resolve issues from our waking lives, the narratives here impose structure and sense-making onto the improbable realities faced by Pacific and Asian peoples.

This kind of confabulation, or filling in of the blanks, creates at the same time new possibilities for seeing and being in the world. The Inner Lives of Islands combines these narratives beyond mere assemblage, creating stories with agency and intentionality.

About Robbie Handcock

Robbie Handcock is a Filipino/Pākehā artist and curator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He was a facilitator with artist-run gallery play_station in Te Whanganui-a-Tara from 2019 to 2020 and currently works as Public Programmes Officer for Gus Fisher Gallery. He also hosts the podcast Popular Glory: Contemporary Queerness and the Moving Image with CIRCUIT.

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