Michel Tuffery with BCA Gallery First Contact | Siamani Samoa
Sculpture/Paintings/Video
March 8 -11, 2012
7W 34th St
For VOLTA 2012, New Zealand/CookIslands artist Michel Tuffery present’s First Contact | Siamani Samoa, a digital installation shown with an evolving series of sculpture and paintings.
Tuffery delivers a contemporary Polynesian viewpoint as he narrates this important period in human discovery, utilising material recorded by scientists and artists from the three voyages of the English navigator Captain James Cook to the South Pacific during the 18th century. This period in history was to be as significant to the people of the Pacific as it was to the populous of Europe. The artist delves within the mindset of the historical characters involved, specifically, the perception of the artwork executed by the renowned Polynesian navigator Tupaia aboard Cook’s first voyage (1768-71).Tuffery raises the question of how it influenced the (then) contemporary psyche of Western culture and provides renewed perspective to the inevitable interaction of opposed ideologies.
Tuffery’s premise is delivered via an arresting video encompassing historical and modern footage, small sculpture, a triptych of portraits of Captain Cook and a series of wooden combs from his Siamani Samoa series.
Michel Tuffery, New Zealand Man Cook Islands Maori, Acrylic on Canvas, 450x450mm, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, New Zealand Man Cook Islands Maori, Acrylic on Canvas, 450x450mm, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, Cookie from Aotearoa to Mangaia 1777, Acrylic on canvas, 450x450mm, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, Cookie from Aotearoa to Mangaia 1777, Acrylic on canvas, 450x450mm, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, Cookie in Te Wai Pounamu meets Cook Strait, 450x450mm, acrylic on canvas, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, Cookie in Te Wai Pounamu meets Cook Strait, 450x450mm, acrylic on canvas, 2011.
Michel Tuffery, Tangaroa Cookie, Bronze Bust, 120x100mm, 2007.
Michel Tuffery, Tangaroa Cookie, Bronze Bust, 120x100mm, 2007.
Michel Tuffery,Siamani Samoa, Rimu, Manumea, Toothbill Pigeon, 2010, ed.
Michel Tuffery,Siamani Samoa, Rimu, Manumea, Toothbill Pigeon, 2010, ed.
Michel Tuffery, Siamani Samoa, Rimu, Nui Siamani Samoa, 2010, ed.
Michel Tuffery, Siamani Samoa, Rimu, Nui Siamani Samoa, 2010, ed.
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