(15 Jun 2001)
1. VS of gondola pan to ext gallery
2. MS entrance
3. VS of art by Jacqueline Fraser
4. SOT Jacqueline Fraser:"In a place like this we are all equal and you can be from a tiny, tiny county or America or something very big and we all have a chance to present our work to the international art world."
5. VS Peter Robinson exhibit
6. SOT Peter Robinson: "I'm a believer that it is your country, the place that you come from that feeds and nourishes your work, I left my context and although Europe is an incredibly rich place to live both culturally and historically I entered a vacuum. From this position of being in a vacuum, an abyss, a black hole, this is what I started making my work about."
7. VS art by Peter Robinson
MAORI ART GETS FIRST SHOWING IN VENICE
====================================
When the traditional tribal chants of the New Zealand Maori haka dance reverberated through the Baroque colonnades of Venice's St Mark's Square, last Thursday (7th June) it was an announcement of both intent and celebration. The kapa haka (performing arts) group, were providing the ceremonial support for the first New Zealand artists to be represented at the Venice Biennale - JACQUELINE FRASER and PETER ROBINSON.
Both Fraser and Robinson are descended from the same South Island Maori iwi (tribe) as the dancers. Both of them are of European and Maori descent.
Their combined project, entitled 'Bi-Polar,' refers to the global divide and the presentation of art from the Southern Hemispheres in a Northern Hemisphere forum. It also refers to distinctions between the two artists, such as those of style and gender.
Fraser and Robinson each have a room in the L-shaped St Apollonia Museum to present their installations. Robinson's installation, Divine Comedy, positions discrete sculptural objects alongside wall prints written in ASCII computer code. Greg Burke, curator of the exhibition, explains: "these elements refer to models of the universe and theories of existence drawn from Maori and medieval mythologies as well as existential philosophy and quantum physics."
Much of Robinson's early work dealt with issues relating to Maori identity and exoticism. He has moved away from these preoccupations. His work has been exhibited in Sydney, Sao Paolo, Johannesburg, Lyon and Berlin.
In Fraser's installation, she transforms her space with an integrated array of fabric, veils and canopies. Eleven discrete portraits wrought from wire are set within the space, depicting ther artist and an adolescent boy in progressive stages of a narrative. The portraits are intended to tell a multi-layered story of repression and reconciliation which juxtaposes the grittiness of the story with the luxury and high style of the fabrics the characters are dressed in. Those come from famous designers such as Prada and Moschino.
Jacqueline Fraser's work has been exhibited in Sydney, Frankfurt and Mexico City.
The Biennale runs until November.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
