Paradise Camp

Edited by Natalie King

Internationally renowned artist Yuki Kihara — the first Samoan and the first transgender artist to represent New Zealand at the Venice Biennale — flips the script on an iconic moment in the Western canon

Interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara's work interrogates and dismantles gender roles, (mis)representation, and colonial legacies in the Pacific. Kihara is the first Pasifika and first Fa'afafine artist to be presented by New Zealand at the prestigious 59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, with a groundbreaking exhibition of new work that addresses some of the most pressing issues of our time.

For this companion publication to the exhibition, editor Natalie King has commissioned contributors from around the world to explore the interwoven strands running through Kihara's art: race, gender, place, decolonisation, environment, agency, community. The book contextualises Kihara's lifetime of works, which camp, expose, queer and question dominant narratives, turning so-called history on its head.

The book contains contributions from Tahiti to Aotearoa. High-profile contributors include New York-based Cuban artist, scholar and activist Coco Fusco, Tahitian author Chantal Spitz, Filipino curator and professor Patrick Flores, and Australian arts leader Natalie King OAM (who edited the book).