Transcript
The exhibition's title is inspired by the writings of the American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou who often spoke about resilience under racial oppression and gender issues. Co-Curator Abby Cunnane says the exhibition uses work from as far back as 1990 by Maori artist Lisa Reihana, as a starting point, discussing racism, gender issues and colonisation.
"Wog Features which is made in 1990 - we were thinking about how many of the themes that surfaced in that work were still relevant in very contemporary works like what's made by the youngest artist in the show, Esther Ige."
Also curating the project is Charlotte Huddleston who says the comparison between 'Wog Features' and other more recent modern works featured in the exhibition, show there has been little progress around gender, race and identity issues among indigenous women.
"All around the world there are similar issues and yeah, they're sort of pretty much the same so thats part of the reason of doing the exhibition is that there's still an urgency and there still needs to be something said about the issues in multiple forms."
Leafa Wilson is a Samoan multimedia artist whose work in the exhibtion will be presented through a two-hour long performance art piece that will begin when the exhibition opens.
"I guess as a woman of colour, just constantly being left out or trying and struggling all the time for my voice or my art to be even viewed. What I'm saying is that the visibility of the women of colour in just general international art practice is pretty much suppressed. So that's why my work is called 'This Ain't No Disco' and it's kind of about just that battle, that constant battle."
Ms Wilson's work is performed by herself under two names - 'Leafa Wilson' and 'Olgar Krause' which is her birth name showing her German ancestry.
"When people hear the name 'Olgar Krause' they expect somebody else until they see me and they're like "oh! okay". But what I'm saying is I am colonising that name. I am colonising a part of Germany. Not in a kind of (...?) kind of way but Samoa, as a sense of reality - this is who I am. Samoa takes the dominant role in that sense."
Ms Huddleston says there are many pacific artists right now presenting similar issues around colonisation, race, gender and identity.
"There are quite a lot of artists of pacific heritage that are working in that way, some of it's more overt than others but again it's very much touches on particular identity and cultural practices that are contemporary things. So I guess you could say contemporary pacific culture which is often diasporic and it's very very much alive. In particularly in Auckland."
Other artists featuring in the exhibition are Hannah Bronte, Skawennati, Esther Ige and Salote Tawale. The exhibition will run until the end of March at the St Paul's street Gallery in Auckland.