Talofa lava and Greetings

Welcome to the website of Shigeyuki Kihara, a Samoan-born multimedia and performance artist currently based between Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.

Shigeyuki Kihara on Kete Aronui

Maori Television’s Kete Aronui is an art show featuring artists from all around Aotearoa and covering all disciplines. From music, carvers, performers, weavers, painters, sculptors, film makers, theatre and multimedia, Kete Aronui is at the heart of indigenous art.

An upcoming episode directed by Kirsty MacDonald features Shigeyuki Kihara and her work.

Talanoa: Walk the Talk III & IV stills now online

The photographic documentation of the Talanoa: Walk the Talk III & IV performances held in Sydney can now be viewed online, courtesy of photographer Susannah Wimberley.

Both performances were filmed and are currently in the process of editing. The final version will be presented as a moving image work, to be featured in a group exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre Sydney opening on the 28th November 2009.

ethKnowcentrix exhibition opens at October Gallery, London

The long-awaited opening of the ‘ethKnowcentrix: Museums Inside the Artist’ group exhibition, featuring works by Lisa Reihana, Rosanna Raymond, George Nuku and Shigeyuki Kihara, finally opens with a Polynesian welcome ceremony and opening reception on 9 September, at October Gallery in London!

Look out for the Artist Forum at the October Gallery on 12 September featuring an exciting line-up of international artist presentations including:
Isaac Julian
Malika Booker
Noel Wallas
Raimi Gbadamosi
Lisa Reihana
Rosanna Raymond
George Nuku
Shigeyuki Kihara

Find out more about the ethKnowcentrix Artists’ Forum. Also – look out for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition!

For more information please visit: www.octobergallery.co.uk

Assume Nothing showing at QueerDOC 2009

The ‘Assume Nothing’ film will be screened as part of the Queer DOC film festival in Sydney on 9th September 2009.

Directed by filmmaker Kirsty MacDonald, ‘Assume Nothing’ is also a finalist in the Qantas Film and Television Awards for Best Arts/Festival/Feature – Documentary!

Talanoa: Walk the Talk IV

If in Sydney, you’re warmly invited to the last and final public performance of Talanoa: Walk the Talk IV featuring Ingleburn RSL Club, Campbelltown Community Pipes and Drums, Wuruniri Music and Dance and Shigeyuki Kihara held at 12pm, Redfern Community Centre, located in Redfern, Sydney, Australia.

Flower Power group exhibition at Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale (CRAA), Italy

The installation entitled Menstrolly Speaking created by Ema Tavola, Leilani Salesa and Shigeyuki Kihara is featured in a group exhibition entitled Flower Power, curated by Andrea Busto, and currently held at Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale (CRAA) in Verbania, Italy.

Installation images are now online: go to ‘Expositions et Evenements’ to see the works featured in the exhibition.

Selected artists featured in this large scale group exhibition include: Andy Warhol, Gilbert & George, Joseph Beuys, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Henri Matisse, Yinka Shonibare, Pae White, Ana Mendieta, Yasumasa Morimura, Wolfgang Laib, Georgia O’keeffe, Paul Klee, Chris Ofili, Takahashi Murakami, Chen Zhen, Ema Tavola, Leilani Salesa, Shigeyuki Kihara and more…

For the catalogue text, follow this link.

Assume Nothing at Rhode Island International Film Festival

Assume Nothing film featuring Shigeyuki Kihara is showing at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA.

The  Assume Nothing film, in the making for the last five years, is by director Kirsty MacDonald collaborating with a number of artists and performers from New Zealand who express their alternative gender identity through their art, and featuring the music of the wonderful Claire Cowan, among others. Participants are: Rebecca Swan, Mani Bruce Mitchell, Ema Lyon, Jack Byrne and Shigeyuki Kihara.

Part of the film was shot in New York last year, following the solo exhibition of Shigeyuki Kihara’s work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. While most of that filming will appear in an upcoming television episode of Kete Aronui screening soon on Maori Television in New Zealand, part of the New York event also appears in the Assume Nothing film.

The screening of Assume Nothing is part of the Rhode Island International Film Festival and will take place on Sunday 9 August 2009.

Shigeyuki explains Talanoa: Walk the Talk IV

Talanoa: Walk the Talk IV is a free public performance at Redfern Community Centre, Sydney, Australia on Saturday 15 August 2009, from 12pm. Featuring: Wuruniri Music and Dance; Ingleburn RSL Club & Campbelltown Community Pipes and Drums.

During my seven-week residency hosted by the Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney I am staging the Talanoa: Walk the Talk III & IV in August 2009, at selected venues throughout Sydney. ‘Talanoa’ is a Samoan term used to describe the process of dialogue between two parties coming together in finding mutual ground through the exchange of ideas.

About Talanoa:

Samoan-born multimedia and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara works in partnership with four performance groups with distinctive cultures and styles to come together in an intercultural dialogue – a ‘talanoa’ by staging live collaborative public performances held in locations situated throughout Sydney, Australia.

The documentation of all the ‘Talanoa’ performances (I – IV) will be presented as moving image artworks featured in an upcoming group exhibition entitled ‘What do you think about when you dance?’ – exploring the intersection between dance and contemporary art – curated by dance curator Emma Saunders, held at the Campbelltown Arts Centre opening on 28 November 2009 until January 2010.

Previous performances of Talanoa: Walk the Talk I & II were commissioned by the Auckland City Council, New Zealand and held in April 2009.

I would like to thank the members of Mukti Gupteshwar Mandir Society and the Samoa Congregational Church Minto for their performances in Talanoa: Walk the Talk III which took place at the Minto Mall in Sydney on 8 August. You could see Lord Shiva and Jesus Christ were both present side by side engaging in spirit, through a touching performance…

Talanoa: Walk the Talk III

Shigeyuki Kihara has collaborated with the Mukti Gupteshar Mandir Society and the Congregational Christian Church Samoa to present Talanoa: Walk the Talk III, a work that explores cross-cultural relationships within communities.

The latest performance is happening in Minto, Sydney on Saturday 8 August from 10.30am.

‘Le Folauga’ tours to Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan

‘Le Folauga’ is a group exhibition curated by Fuli Pereira (Curator, Auckland Museum, New Zealand) and Ron Brownson (Curator, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand) for the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust - an Auckland, New Zealand-based, non-profit organisation which supports the growth and development of contemporary Pacific art in New Zealand and worldwide.

The ‘Le Folauga’ exhibition is a “snapshot” of the current state of contemporary Pacific art from New Zealand.

It was inititally exhibited at the Auckland Museum in early 2007 and is now touring to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The ‘Le Folauga’ exhibition opens on the 13 December 2008 and ends on 5 April 2009.

Artists in ‘Le Folauga’ include:
Edith Amituanai
Fatu Feu’u
Steven Gwaliasi
Niki Hastings-McFall
Lonnie Hutchinson
John Ioane
Shigeyuki Kihara
Andy Leleisi’uao
Itiri Ngaro
Ani O’Neill
Johnny Penisula
Filipe Tohi
Michel Tuffery
Jim Vivieaere

Selected works from my ‘Fa’a fafine; In a Manner of a Woman’ series (2005) will be touring with the ‘Le Folauga’ exhibition.