Opening Speakers:
Peter Marshall, New Zealand High Commissioner, Cook Islands
Mahiriki Tangaroa, Artist
The Pacific region is a diverse entity, containing 25,000 Islands and spanning a third of the worlds surface. With a rich human history, including astounding feats of navigation and ocean voyaging dating back 50,000 years, Pacific Islanders had their own language systems, established social structures, religious traditions and tattoo, object and tapa based art forms. A great many of these art treasures were taken by early explorers, scientists, traders and religious organizations to museums and collectors across Europe. Rich in their creative composition, these Pacific art forms would come to influence the works of modern European painters including Picasso and Matisse.
This tradition of Pacific creativity hasn't changed.
MPA1 is designed to reflect the strength of Modern Pacific Art practice across a variety of media, to give it global context and to offer it as a standard, ignoring archaic parameters imposed on it by western art institutions. These 12 Pacific artists, including Cook Islanders Mahiriki Tangaroa, Sylvia Marsters, Tungane Broadbent and Brendan Kitto offer a compelling statement, diffusing cultural stereotypes, addressing issues of identity, past and present value systems and human diaspora .
