Then and There, Here and Now: Portraits of Sāmoa

Then and There, Here and Now: Portraits of Sāmoa

Various Artists

New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata
Shed 11, 60 Lady Elizabeth Lane, Wellington

14 September - 10 December 2023

Greg Semu, Self Portrait - the Fisher of Men - Matthew Chapter 4:19, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and The Arts House Trust Collection

Then and There, Here and Now: Portraits of Sāmoa offers a look at historical and contemporary photographic portraits of Sāmoans, created by both New Zealand and Sāmoan photographers over a period of 150 years. This exhibition engages with the ideas of the muagagana (Sāmoan saying) “e sui faiga ae tumau faavae,” which means that even if practices, methods, and approaches in our everyday lives change, the foundations stay the same. The photographs will emphasise the change and continuation of traditional values over time and space, by exploring how Sāmoan photographers in New Zealand present themselves and their communities today, as opposed to those presentations created by earlier non-Sāmoan photographers. By focusing on Sāmoan heritage relating to dress, tatau (tattooing), gender, the home, community, and nature, these works create a narrative that helps to link diaspora communities here in New Zealand back to communities in Sāmoa from the past and in the present.

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