Fa'afafine: In amanner of a woman, 2004-2005, Triptych Exhibition Chromogenic print on Fujicolour Professionl Paper 23 5/8 x 31 1/2in 60 x 80cm
Prints, Drawings and Photography Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Stephanie H. Bernheim Gifts and the artist/photo by Sean Coyle.
Context;
Reconsideration of Colonial Western assumptions adopted by Pacific Islanders about Pacific history, desire, gender and the body. Recreating colonial nineteenth and twentieth centuries images ranging from the ethnographic to the pornographic taken by non-native photographers which help create and fuel stereotypes about the South Pacific people. Among which was the fantasy of the 'Belle Sauvage' 'The Dusky Maiden' the beautiful primitive woman who was simultaneously innocent, eroticized and available. The exploitation, the force religious doctrination, the destruction of a culture, the forced European Colonial idealogy.
Content;
A self portraiture of a Samoan/Japanese transsexual globe trotting, New Zealand resident artist. She has several exhibited work in Australia and New York and New Zealand.
Form;
In a studio setting of wooden floor boards and somewhat tattered bandanas mat back drop. The scene of a Polynesian half grass skirt covered, dusky maiden inclined on a colonial velvet couch flanked by tropical plants. In the foreground is the floorboard floor, central of the image is the inclined grass skirted dusky maiden on her colonial velvet, tassel trimmed couch. The background is a backdrop of a tattered weaved bandanas mat and tropical plants. In our composition, we can clearly see a horizontal line and the central image at a rule of third intersection. The image has a deep depth of field, possibly at f/22 aperture shot a fairly fast shutter speed and ISO speed at perhaps 100 on flash with studio lighting. And to keep to the colonial theme, a monochrome finish is applied to the image and strongly emphasized by the weave pattern texture of the backdrop.
Reconsideration of Colonial Western assumptions adopted by Pacific Islanders about Pacific history, desire, gender and the body. Recreating colonial nineteenth and twentieth centuries images ranging from the ethnographic to the pornographic taken by non-native photographers which help create and fuel stereotypes about the South Pacific people. Among which was the fantasy of the 'Belle Sauvage' 'The Dusky Maiden' the beautiful primitive woman who was simultaneously innocent, eroticized and available. The exploitation, the force religious doctrination, the destruction of a culture, the forced European Colonial idealogy.
Content;
A self portraiture of a Samoan/Japanese transsexual globe trotting, New Zealand resident artist. She has several exhibited work in Australia and New York and New Zealand.
Form;
In a studio setting of wooden floor boards and somewhat tattered bandanas mat back drop. The scene of a Polynesian half grass skirt covered, dusky maiden inclined on a colonial velvet couch flanked by tropical plants. In the foreground is the floorboard floor, central of the image is the inclined grass skirted dusky maiden on her colonial velvet, tassel trimmed couch. The background is a backdrop of a tattered weaved bandanas mat and tropical plants. In our composition, we can clearly see a horizontal line and the central image at a rule of third intersection. The image has a deep depth of field, possibly at f/22 aperture shot a fairly fast shutter speed and ISO speed at perhaps 100 on flash with studio lighting. And to keep to the colonial theme, a monochrome finish is applied to the image and strongly emphasized by the weave pattern texture of the backdrop.
