The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 38 (clockwise from opposite left) 501 tattoo 2021 Eco inks on 100% natural silk, ed.1/5 / 80 x 110cm Park bubble 2021 Eco inks on 100% natural silk, ed.1/5 / 80 x 110cm The Quarry 2020 Giclée print, ed.2/5 / 100 x 120cm Commissioned for APT10. Purchased 2021 with funds from the Jennifer Taylor Bequest through the Queensland Art Gallery l Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Images courtesy: The artist Edith Amituanai’s photography creates sites of social connection and belonging, particularly for the largely under- represented Pasifika, youth and refugee communities among whom she lives and works in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad. Her images often take the form of portraits and are co-created with their subjects to make visible the ways in which these individuals and communities picture themselves and the world they live in. For La’u Pele Moana (My darling Moana) 2021, Amituanai has worked with friends and family based in Auckland to explore the Moana (Pacific Ocean) as a place of longing and aspiration. Thinking about making new work for the context of APT10 in Brisbane, Amituanai was especially interested in The title that Amituanai has selected for the work is the name of a 1975 song by the legendary Samoan band, the Golden Ali’is: ‘ La’u Pele Moana (My darling Moana)’. 1 Amituanai has shared that this love song is iconic to her parents’ generation, capturing the sense of remorse that flows from having lost a lover due to an act of unfaithfulness. In Samoan, Moana is the name of a woman but also the term used for the Pacific Ocean. Sung in this lyrical language, ‘La’u Pele Moana’ provides the soundtrack for Amituanai’s first foray into video and captures the sense of sadness that accompanies having lost a connection that is truly sustaining. The song can be read as a love song for the lands and connections left behind in pursuit of new opportunities as well a lament for ways in which we have become unfaithful to the ocean that is so fundamental to life. As we view Amituanai’s images, both moving and still, we are reminded of her deep respect for her subjects and the intimacy that she is able to establish as a result. There are celebratory images of young men — who had earlier spoken about their hope to travel to Australia — launching themselves off a rocky precipice into the deep green water of an abandoned quarry. We see Don, whom Edith met online through the siren community, on his bicycle blasting ‘La’u Pele Moana’ through his siren to the ocean that separates the two countries, and Amituanai’s niece blowing bubbles in the park in front of eucalyptus trees in a T-shirt asserting Aboriginal sovereignty over land: ‘Always was — Always will be’. Interspersed with these vignettes are more complex images of connections and disconnections between the two countries, including a photograph of a tattoo marked on the back of the neck of a member of the 501s, a group of deportees named after the section of immigration law amended by Australian Federal Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton in 2014, which enabled residents to be removed on ‘character concern’ grounds and sent back to New Zealand where they were born, even if they had lived most of their life in Australia. La’u Pele Moana was created as the artist worked through the frustrations of not being able to travel and connect with communities in south-east Queensland as the result of COVID-19 hard border closures. The bubble, the light and mobile motif we see throughout the video speaks to this contemporary situation — a metaphor for the fragile beauty of the travel bubble that eventually would allow a two-way exchange between the two countries. Ruth McDougall Endnotes 1 Muliaga Mamaia, ‘La’u Pele Moana’, performed by the Golden Ali’is, 1981. looking at the dreams and realities of Samoans who have travelled — or want to travel — across this ocean to Australia, ‘the land of milk and honey’. Amituanai is herself the daughter of a Samoan couple who left the land of their birth in search of the opportunities and lifestyle available on the bigger islands of Aotearoa. She grew up in Auckland, in the largest Polynesian diaspora community in the world. Within this community, Australia is often considered the next big step and many Samoan families — including Amituanai’s own — have members residing across the three island nations. Through video and a series of images printed on easily folded and shipped organza fabric, Amituanai’s new work explores the desire for this Antipodean crossing. Edith Amituanai Born 1980, Auckand, Aotearoa New Zealand Lives and works in Auckland