Yuki Kihara

Yuki Kihara
Yuki Kihara 2022
Born1975 (age 48–49)
Samoa
EducationWellington Polytech
Known forMultidisciplinary artwork focusing on subverting stereotypes and norms
Notable workShigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs
Websiteyukikihara.ws

Shigeyuki "Yuki" Kihara (born 1975) is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Samoan descent. In 2008, her work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; it was the first time a New Zealander and the first time a Pacific Islander had a solo show at the institution.[1] Titled Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs, the exhibition opened from 7 October 2008 to 1 February 2009.[2] Kihara's self-portrait photographs in the exhibitions included nudes in poses that portrayed colonial images of Polynesian people as sexual objects. Her exhibition was followed by an acquisition of Kihara's work for the museum's collection.

Much of Kihara's work challenges cultural stereotypes and dominant norms of sexuality and gender found across the globe.[3] Kihara is also a fa'afafine, the third gender of Samoa.[4] Born in Samoa, Kihara's mother is Samoan and her father is Japanese.[5] Kihara immigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, at the age of fifteen to further her studies.[6] She trained in fashion design at Wellington Polytech (now Massey University). In 1995, while still a student, Kihara's Graffiti Dress – Bombacific was purchased by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa).[7] Kihara's exhibition Teuanoa'i: Adorn to Excess[8] was composed of twenty six t-shirts that took large corporations' logos and re-appropriated them. Kihara described the concept "to subvert the system of power which governs the lives of Indigenous peoples today."[9]

Kihara lives and works in Samoa, where she has been based over the last 10 years[which?].

  1. ^ Arvin, Maile (2019). Possessing Polynesians : the science of settler colonial whiteness in Hawaiʹi and Oceania. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 195–223. ISBN 978-1-4780-0633-6. OCLC 1089781629.
  2. ^ Photographs by Samoan Multimedia Artist On View at Metropolitan Museum This Fall Archived 16 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Rosi, Pamela (2007). "About the Artist: Shigeyuki Kihara". The Contemporary Pacific. 19 (1): VII–VI. ISSN 1043-898X. JSTOR 23723984.
  4. ^ Samoa Faafafine Association Inc. Official Website Archived 5 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "ShigeyukiKihara – Artist & Independent Curator | Art | Theatre | Multimedia | Performance". Shigeyukikihara.wordpress.com. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  6. ^ Pohio, Nathan. Bulletin of the Christchurch Art Gallery; Summer2017/2018, Issue 190, p40-43, 4p
  7. ^ Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. "Graffiti dress – Collections Online – Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa". Collections.tepapa.govt.nz. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  8. ^ "Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa". collections.tepapa.govt.nz. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Shigeyuki Kihara". Peril magazine. 9 May 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2019.