Past Residents
Past Resident2013: Wallace Arts Trust
Yuki Kihara
The title of Yuki Kihara’s new body of work, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, is lifted from a large-scale painting by Paul Gauguin completed in 1897 shortly before he died in Tahiti. Kihara uses these questions to frame her examination of Samoan culture and society following the tsunami of 2009, last year’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Samoa’s independence and, most recently, the destruction caused by Cyclone Evan. Taking inspiration from a late 19th-century photograph Samoan Half Caste by New Zealand photographer Thomas Andrew, Kihara dons a Victorian mourning dress and appears as her alter-ego ‘Salome’ photographed in selected locations across Upolu island Samoa that are pointed allusions to the social, religious, economic and political issues the artist wishes to highlight. Referencing the staged photographic postcards of the ‘South Seas’, Salome’s lone figure stands as silent witness to scenes of political, historical and cultural importance in present-day Samoa. She turns the camera on her country’s colonial past, the impact of burgeoning globalisation, ideas of indigeneity and the role of government in an independent Samoa. Kihara “unpacks the myth” of her country as an untouched Pacific paradise as seen through the eyes of colonial powers and tourist photographs.
A native of Samoa, Yuki Kihara is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been presented at Asia- Pacific Triennial; Auckland Triennial and the Sakahàn Quinquennial. Kihara’s first solo museum exhibition in North America entitled Yuki Kihara; Living Photographs (2008-09) was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York following the acquisition of her works by the museum for their permanent collection. Kihara’s works and performances has also been shown internationally at de Young Museum, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; National Museum of Poznan, Warsaw; Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale, Italy; Rautenstrauch Joest Museum, Colonge; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Musée du quai Branly, Paris; Trodheim Kunstmuseum, Norway and National Gallery of Canada. Kihara’s most recent mid-career survey exhibition entitled Undressing the Pacific presented at the Hocken Library will tour several NZ institutions throughout 2013/2014 organized by the University of Otago, NZ. A publication on Kihara’s work is currently being edited by art historian Erika Wolf.
Yuki Kihara, Roman Catholic Church, Apia, 2013. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara Studio and Milford Galleries, Dunedin.
Yuki Kihara, After Tsunami Galu Afi, Lalomanu, 2013. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara Studio and Milford Galleries, Dunedin.
Yuki Kihara, After Cyclone Evan, Lelata, 2013. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara Studio and Milford Galleries, Dunedin.
Yuki Kihara, Aquatic Center, Tuanaimato, 2013. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara Studio and Milford Galleries, Dunedin.
Past Resident2013: Canada Council for the Arts
Karen Elaine Spencer
Karen Elaine Spencer’s work questions use values and investigates how we, as transient beings, occupy the world in which we live. The notion of progress is challenged through the repetition of an action that leads nowhere. Metro-riding, rambling, dreaming, and loitering are among the activities Spencer folds into her practice. A project is sustained over time, often a year, and materials of our day-to-day existence are favored. Through a détournement of materials or intentions, Spencer intervenes into specific places, where she marks and is marked by spatial and social geographies. A current project, “hey! mike” the blog, is part of a multifaceted conversation with Mike Bloomberg, the 108th mayor of New York City. Here she questions a system whereby one person can be held up as a philanthropist without a basic acknowledgement of a deep lack of justice between all humans because “no one gets rich alone.”
Karen Elaine Spencer lives and works in Montreal, Québec, Canada. Since 2008, she has been active in a postcard and web-based project entitled Transient Traces, where she steals the words of others to then send these words to politicians and public figures. Her practice oscillates between work in the street, exhibitions in galleries, and disseminations via the web. In 2011, she curated the program Gosser le Furtif at Galerie Skol, Montreal. Her text for the performance group TRAFIC was published in the catalog “Lost and found/Les Bureau des Objets Trouvés,” and she was an artist in residence at The John Snow House in Calgary, Alberta. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and Europe. She is the recipient of the 2012 Powerhouse Prize.
Karen Elaine Spencer, Dream Listener, 2007, Ink on cardboard. Courtesy of the artist.
Karen Elaine Spencer, Eating Oranges After Dark, 2009, Orange peel. Courtesy of the artist.
Karen Elaine Spencer, I Dreamt I Ran Away From Home, 2009, Chalk on pavement. Courtesy of the artist.
Karen Elaine Spencer, Sittin', 2010, 10-day intervention Union Station, Toronto, Ontario. Courtesy of the artist.
Karen Elaine Spencer, Transient Traces, 2011, Postcards. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2012: ACC - Asian Cultural Council
Ambie Abaño
Ambie Abaño’s shift from painting to printmaking brought her to an exploration of the medium as she investigates portraiture in relation to both material and process. From two-dimensional prints, her experimental works led to the creation of portraits and figures in sculpture, mixed media works, and installations, always with an element of traditional printmaking processes.
Ambie Abaño (born Manila 1967) abandoned the practice of architecture in favor of being a visual artist. She exhibits widely in the Philippines and across Asia. Abaño is a faculty member at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. For the past six years, she served as president of the Philippine Association of Printmakers and remains active in their training program. Her solo exhibitions include: SurFACE (2011); Sanctuaire des memoires (2012) at the Alliance Francaise de Manille, and TransFIGURATION at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2006). She participated in A/P: Analog Playground, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila; The Speaking House, Kerala, India (2012); Asian International Art Exhibition (2007-2011), and Open Studios at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2011).
Ambie Abaño, Trapped, 2009, Stuffed prints on textile, 24 × 24 × 24 in. (60.96 × 60.96 × 60.96 cm).
Ambie Abaño, Prayer, 2009, Installation with woodcut on textile and plastic.
Ambie Abaño, Self Awareness, 2011, Oil painting and woodcut on phillippine mahogany, 72 × 60 in. (182.88 × 152.4 cm).
Ambie Abaño, Diaries, 2010, Woodcut on recycled wood carved into books.
