APT 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia : Report

PASIFIKA DIVAS ‘IN PERFORMANCE’ EVENT Pasifika Divas, ‘In performance’ event, 14 September, 2002 OVEW VIEW The Pasifika Divas project was composed of a performance and an exhibition component. The performance aspect was conceived by the Samoan television producer Lisa Taouma, as a series of short performative pieces presenting leading Pacific body adorners and designers’ works interspersed with DJ music, local events and curated projections. The exhibition component presented body adornment by Sofia Tekela-Smith and Niki Hastings-McFall in a dedicated space in the Gallery and a documentation video of the Pasifika Divas performance. The event occurred on Saturday 14 September 2002 in the lower sculpture courtyard of the Queensland Art Gallery. Two thousand people attended the booked-out event and punter barriers had to be erected. Reviewers such as Julianne Pierce in ‘Real Time’ magazine commented on the high turnout by the Pacific community. The event was accompanied by two large screen projections featuring continuous screenings of multimedia, video and photographic work. Lisa Taouma curated the video backgrounds for each of the Divas’ performance. Lisa Reihana presented her video work Love will make love foundation . THE DIVAS The five Divas were Buckwheat, Lindah E, Sha-ne’ne’, Shigeyuki Kihara and Phylesha Brown-Acton. The Divas designed and adorned their own costumes as well as wearing body adornment pieces by Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading, and some emerging, jewelers and designers, including, Sofia Tekela-Smith, Niki Hastings-McFall, Alicia Courtney and Lara Kastelan. 31