Artist Statement

June 9 – August 21, Santa Mònica Art Centre. Public Event.

Keywords: digital interface, Indigenous knowledge, interconnection, genearchaeology internet art

‘Waiting for other’ explores self-portrait as other as in ancestor, through a collection of interrelated GIFs. It sequences body parts in relation to indigenous pacific cosmology to reorientate ‘self’ and ancestor. It is a cumulative project that builds and expands over time. This exhibition is the inaugurating presentation.

The indigenous cultures of the Pacific believe material and immaterial worlds are connected, wherein the present exists, our past and future. Centred in this multi-layered and multidimensional understanding of the world, genealogy (akapapa, whakapapa) manifests interconnection and continuity through inherent recursive strategies.

Through the lens of genearchelogy (Refiti, 2008), the manifestation of our ancestor is made present through the body. Here the notion of self (I) in the singular is positioned in relation to self as other as in ancestor as in the multiple. That is to say, the notion of self is understood as the binding relation of one’s ancestors through one’s gene archaeological matter, manifesting the past in the present.
It is through this understanding of self that the thematic consideration for this work begins. The project explores the extent interconnection and continuity, from an indigenous Pacific lens, can be explored through digital means.

The project has a two-forked approach. The first sequences body parts in relation to indigenous pacific cosmological beginnings. The animated sequence of body parts is a reorientation of ‘self’ and ancestor. The second looks at the relation between the skin of the body and skin of the digital image. Crucial to this exploration is the notion of tu ke (to stand in difference),as in the negative stereotype applied to black skin, and te’ta’i, (to stand as an(other) as in ancestor). This two-fold approach calls into question what ancestors manifest through the skin of the body and the skin of the digital image, and to what the digital interface surfaces in us.

Reference:
Refiti, A. L. (2008). The forked centre: duality & privacy in polynesian spaces & architecture. Alternative: An International Journal Of Indigenous Scholarship, 4(1), 97 – 106.

• Nooroa Tapuni (New Zealand) is an interdisciplinary artist that seeks to derive a correlation between seemingly disparate knowledge sets to unfold power relations. Their past projects posited an indigenous understanding of interconnection as a cybernetic system, a relationship of communication and control, through interactive digital art practice. It did so as a way to explore the extent that digital material can be the interface for intuitive understanding and indigenous knowledge. Current interests include the ambiguity of communication through transcoding material. https://academics.aut.ac.nz/nooroa.tapuni