Exhibition review: Paradise Camp: Yuki Kihara, Powerhouse Ultimo

From the Venice Biennale to Australia, the exhibition ‘Paradise Camp’ expands for Australian audiences.

Interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent, Yuki Kihara, was a bold choice for Aotearoa New Zealand’s pavilion at last year’s 59th Venice Biennale. A proud Fa’afafine woman (Sāmoa’s ‘third gender’), Kihara makes work that ‘interrogates and dismantles gender roles, (mis)representation and colonial legacies in the Pacific,’ explains curator Professor Natalie King OAM.

Kihara’s exhibition Paradise Camp caught the attention of international media, but how does it translate here? Co-commissioned by Powerhouse and Creative New Zealand, it opened this week in Australia.

Powerhouse is a very different venue than a Venice pavilion, and while both are weighted with layered histories, Kihara has used the Powerhouse Collection as a springboard to reinterpreting, and representing this installation.