The Return of the Polynesian Phantom, 2008.
Artist: Metuanooroa Tapuni
The Return of the Polynesian Phantom is an ambiguous zone where notions
of identity, surveillance, and perception are questioned. The aim of
this research project is to reimagine, recontextualise, and reframe
Polynesia.
The project engages interactive and robotic technology through the
exploration of objects, movement and installation. It negotiates the
space between lightness and darkness, visibility/invisibility,
metaphorical parallels made between social constructs primarily
engaging with disconnection, phantom and phantasy, stereotype,
panopticon and controlled spaces.
A multi-disciplinary artist and currently a Masters student at AUT,
Metuanooroa Tapuni Gained a BFA from Elam School of Fine Arts
graduating in 1999 and a Graduate Diploma in Digital Media from Aut in
2007, marking a transition from traditional forms of art making to
digital and interactive technology.
Generally her work explores occident and orient (notions of cultural
difference, mimicry, hegemony and imperialism) cultures through the
process of parody by means of experiential installation, paint, drawing
and object art. She is interested in cultural stereotypes, the
identities of the colonised and the coloniser, defined roles,
attributes, how they become and how they define circumstance, context
and environment.
