in Pursuit of Venus [infected]

Lisa Reihana’s video, in ‘Pursuit of Venus [infected]’ 2017 is a response to early European representations of the peoples of Oceania in the French panoramic wallpaper, ‘Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique (The Voyages of Captain Cook)’ 1805 printed by Dufour et Cie. Joseph Dufour was inspired by tales from Captain Cook’s 1769 voyage to witness the transit of Venus from Tahiti and search for ‘Terra Australis,’ but the resulting imagery relied more on imagination than truth.

In Reihana’s version, the generic green plains of the original design, which conflated Oceanic locations with neoclassical characteristics, are occupied by living Indigenous performers, community elders and cultural practitioners of today. They are engaged in culturally specific acts and ceremonies—including dance, storytelling, tattooing and trade—at times playful and subversive. Meanwhile, actors playing English seafarers observe, interact, misunderstand and disrupt daily proceedings of life. The interactions between First Nations peoples and the foreign interlopers in the video’s many vignettes creates a grand and complex narrative of first contact.

The re-imagined interactions between the Indigenous and European people are an elaborate reclamation and decolonisation of land and culture, opening up a visual space that disrupts any singular or comfortable understanding of the legacies of empire and intercultural encounters where: ‘once you’ve seen something, you’re changed forever; and that’s the infection.’ Lisa Reihana

Exhibited in 'The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT9) | 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019