Image courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Fonofono o le nuanua: Patches of the rainbow (After Gauguin), 2020

Hahnemühle fine art paper mounted on aluminium
139 × 375 cm

Kihara’s remediation of Western art history from Gauguin to Manet is manifested in the vast photograph Fonofono o le nuanua: Patches of the rainbow (After Gauguin), emulating Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98).

Here, a group of Fa‘afafine poses riverside in bright attire in a photograph spanning over 3 metres that is like a frieze in scale and complexity. Poetic, profound and resilient, this community portrait asserts new narratives.

Watch the making-of video

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Paul Gauguin

In Gauguin’s paintings, Kihara noticed uncanny similarities to Fa’afafine. In Paradise Camp, Kihara upcycles Gauguin’s works using Fa‘afafine models to represent her own vision of Paradise.

Fonofono o le nuanua: Patches of the rainbow (After Gauguin), 2020
Fonofono o le nuanua: Patches of the rainbow (After Gauguin), 2020
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Paradise Camp Soundtrack
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