Article

By Rozzy Middleton | 5 May 2008

The Manukau School of Visual Arts continues to build on a number of interesting and stimulating initiatives, with the recent hosting of the Uncertain Places symposium in mid-September. Organised by deputy head of school Mark Kirby, the symposium featured a range of international and local speakers discussing the implications of mobility, migration and colonisation in their visual art practice.

The common experience of our time is the sense of dispossession that comes with transition and flux. Perhaps it has always been this way, but never before have we been so keenly aware that where we come from is not the main defining factor in who we are. With increased movement comes growth in cultural exchange and the mobility of ideas but it brings with it a sense of physical and mental disorientation. We are characterised by multiplicity, the interface between cultures and the negotiation of the liminal space between these. The world today is an unfixed and uncertain place and this provides a rich theoretical and contextual ground for artistic practice.

The symposium was developed to coincide with the opening of an exhibition by Santiago Cal at Te Tuhi. A multi-media artist, Cal's visual art practice explores the effects and experiences of multiple cultures, destinations and perspectives. Born in Belize to an indigenous father and an American mother, Cal spent his childhood in Belize but moved to the United States at age twelve. Cal's memories of this movement and the uncertainties that arose out of it provide the basis for his artistic practice. In a photographic image from the exhibition - Flamboyant (2007), Cal brings together aspects of his dual heritage as a plant grown from seeds illegally imported from Belize rests on the head of an American man. The precarious nature of the plant resting atop his head draws attention to the man's neck - one of the strongest and most important parts of the body and yet also one of the most delicate. Perhaps this can be read as an embodiment of the strength we gain from cultural duality as ideas flow yet the precarious and uncertain nature that this condition brings.

Shigeyuki Kihara movement between countries also characterises her artistic practice. Kihara's heritage - like Cal's - is a complex one. Born in Samoa to a Samoan mother and Japanese father, Shigeyuki has lived in a number of countries. Her very name Shigeyuki means ‘transition between autumn and winter', itself a mediation between two places. Moving to New Zealand a decade ago, Kihara explores her heritage and status as a transgender artist through performance and self portraiture. Kihara digitally inserts herself into the mythologies and stories of her Samoan past in photographic series such as ‘Fa Fafine: In the manner of a woman' (2005).

Other artists at the symposium explore the uncertainties of social injustice and political repression that result from the uncertain places of the world. Dadang Christanto was the Manukau School of Visual Arts Artist in Residence at the time of the symposium. Of Indonesian heritage, Christanto moved to Australia in 1999 and his now based in Brisbane.

During his residency, Christanto was preparing for his upcoming show at Sydney's Sherman Galleries. The Counting Series is an ongoing project for Christanto that was born out of celebrations concerning the new millennium. For Christanto, rather than celebrating, the turn of the century provided an opportunity to question bloodshed - 255 millions people dead which equates to around 3 million a year for every year of the 20th century. In this current facet of the project "Í find your face spread on the street", Christanto constructed hundreds of cardboard panels on to which he painted a black and white portrait surrounded by slashes of red paint and hundreds of gold dots. Each panel represents just one of the millions of victims of the 20th century.

For Christanto, uprising and death are a very real part of his life and history - he grew up during Indonesia's repressive political regime under President Suharto who came to power in 1965. During uprisings in 1965, nearly two millions people were killed and the country fell under heavy censorship. Christanto's own father disappeared during this time - an occurrence which the authorities never explained and had his own art exhibitions closed down without explanation or reason.

Pat Hoffie is also concerned with government cover ups, politics, censorship and social injustice. Born in Edinburgh, and also based in Brisbane, Hoffie's recent work deals with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and offers a questioning of the Australian government's current policies on migration, border patrol and refugees, and the media's role in the social maintenance of these policies.

Increasingly, the popularly constructed myths, histories and relationships that underpin Australian society involve a certain amount of self-delusion and Hoffie uses her work to augment this. The element of denial ingrained in Australian society provides the basis for much of Hoffie's work and in one of her more recent works the artist dealt with the ‘Children Overboard' incident in Australia.

In Inadequate Language, Hoffie created three pieces that stimulated debate on the issues of immigration and societal change that surrounded the controversy. Issues about societal change, migration and refuge are an inherent part of modern Australian history and play a polarizing role in debates about what it means to be a modern Australian.
Uncertain places also featured a number of New Zealand based artists who also explored their own personal uncertainties to do with a sense of place. Auckland based jeweller Jason Hall gave a succinct talk about his jewellery and fine art practice and how it elucidates his uncomfortable and uncertain place within New Zealand culture as a Pakeha and descendant of colonisers. Nikki Hastings McFall gave a run down on her artistic practice which explores her history as a Pakeha and a Samoan - a fact which she remained unaware for the first part of her life.

This is a necessarily brief summation of the range of speakers and artistic practices covered during the symposium. Mark Kirby hopes to organise a similar event in the future and given the far reaching resonance of such a subject, it will be interesting to examine the works of other artists whose work explore these collective issues of identity, belonging, social constructs and this sense of disorientation that characterises our current circumstances.