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.

Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination

Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, United Kingdom, until December 2010.

Curated by Anita Herle, Mark Elliott and Rebecca Empson, Assembling Bodies is a major interdisciplinary exhibition at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, open from March 2009 to November 2010. The exhibition explores some of the different ways that bodies are imagined, understood and transformed in the arts, social and bio-medical sciences.

Assembling Bodies showcases Cambridge’s extraordinarily rich and diverse collections, complemented by external loans and exciting contemporary artworks. It brings together a range of remarkable and distinctive objects, including the earliest stone tools used by human ancestors, classical sculptures, medieval manuscripts, anatomical drawings, scientific and medical instruments, the model of the double-helix, ancestral figures from the Pacific, South African body-maps and kinetic artworks.

A series of special events and activities for a wide range of audiences is planned to run throughout the period of the exhibition, until December 2010. Numerous academic lectures, conferences and workshops are also planned.

Shigeyuki Kihara’s Fa’a fafine; in a manner of a woman triptych is included in this major exhibition.

For more information please visit the Assembling Bodies website.

Shigeyuki Kihara officially selected for Auckland Triennial 2010

Last month, Natasha Conland, curator of the 4th Auckland Triennial, announced the list of confirmed artists including Shigeyuki Kihara participating in next year’s Triennial to be held on 12 March to 20 June 2010.

The Auckland Triennial is New Zealand’s leading international contemporary art exhibition. Over 30 international artists feature in this multi-venue exhibition held once every three years.

A full programme of new art works, performances, international speakers and forums generates a lively space to experience art in the urban Auckland environment. The South Pacific location provides a unique context for viewing global art practice.

In developing the exhibition’s concept, preliminary research has taken Natasha Conland to Asia, the Middle East and Scandinavia.

A comprehensive catalogue will be released during opening week, with full colour images, critical writing on the exhibition’s themes and profiles of artists and performances.

For more information please visit the Auckland Triennial website.

Edge of Elsewhere – part of Sydney Festival

Edge of Elsewhere at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Gallery 4A Asia Australia Arts Centre and Sydney Festival, 9th – 31st January 2010.

Edge of Elsewhere is a major three-year project (2010, 2011 and 2012) that brings together some of the most exciting contemporary artists from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific to develop new artworks in partnership with Sydney communities.

Sydney is one of Australia’s most rapidly changing cities and is now more culturally diverse than ever before. The continually changing demographics provide an imperative to examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, communities and cultures.

Edge of Elsewhere reflects and engages with the diverse cultural mix of suburban Sydney.

Artists participating in the project include:
Brook Andrew (Australia)
Arahmaiani (Indonesia)
Richard Bell (Australia)
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (Korea)
Dacchi Dang (Australia)
Newell Harry (Australia)
Shigeyuki Kihara (Aotearoa New Zealand)
Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba (Vietnam)
Lisa Reihana (Aotearoa New Zealand)
Khaled Sabsabi (Australia)
Wang Jianwei (China)

Gallery 4A Asia Australia Arts Centre has commissioned Talanoa; Walk the Talk V performance which opens the Edge of Elsewhere program held on the 14th January 2010.

I will be the Artist-In-Residence of the Gallery 4A Asia Australia Arts Centre from 30th November till the end of January 2010.

I am exhibiting all the moving image documentaries produced from the Talanoa; Walk the Talk performance series (including Talanoa V staged during my residency at Gallery 4A) in the group exhibition held at Gallery 4A.

For more information on Sydney Festival visit their website.

What I Think About When I Think About Dancing?

What I Think About When I Think About Dancing? Group exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney opening 27th November 2009.

Sydney’s Campbelltown Arts Centre is producing What I Think About When I Think About Dancing? This contemporary interdisciplinary project explores and responds to the shifting parameters and intersections of dance and other art practices by bringing together dance and visual artists, curators and scholars from across Australia and internationally to engage in residencies, performances, an exhibition and a publication.

The project will commence at Campbelltown Arts Centre in November (running until 3 January 2010) and is curated by Campbelltown Arts Centre’s Director Lisa Havilah and Dance Curator Emma Saunders.

Artists participating in the project include:
Cathy Lane (UK)
Rosemary Butcher (UK)
Brown Council (AUS)
Mitch Cairns (AUS)
Rosie Dennis (AUS)
Brian Fuata (AUS)
Agatha Gothe-Snape (AUS)
Laresa Kosloff (AUS)
Gabriella and Silvana Mangano (AUS)
Kate Murphy (AUS)
James Newitt (AUS)
David Noonan (AUS)
Christian Thompson (AUS)
The Kingpins (AUS)
Shaun Gladwell (AUS)
Shigeyuki Kihara (NZ)

I’ll be exhibiting all the moving image documentaries produced from the Talanoa; Walk the Talk performance series (including those staged during my residency early this year at Campbelltown Arts Centre) in the group exhibition. I will also be participating in the Artist Forum (free to the public!) which will be held on the 28th November 2009.

Shigeyuki Kihara awarded Contemporary Pacific Artist’s Award

New Zealand’s Pacific artists were honoured at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2009 in Waitakere City on 13 November.

An opportunity for Creative New Zealand to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand, among the awards presented, Shigeyuki Kihara received the Contemporary Pacific Artist’s Award – alongside fellow successful artists composer Poulima Salima, performer Elisha Na’otala Fa’i, the weaving group Falepipi he Mafola and master craftsmen Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi.

Read the full media release on Creative New Zealand’s website.

Link to profiles of 2009 participants.

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.