Shock: Arts Council announces noncontroversial artist for Venice Biennale

The Arts Council of New Zealand has announced Lisa Reihana will be the New Zealand artist representing New Zealand at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

Reihana’s panoramic video In Pursuit of Venus [infected], which has been on show at the Auckland Art Gallery will be the centerpiece of the exhibition at a yet to be decided venue in Venice.

It will be presented with additional scenes included.  A new series of photographic works will also be commissioned.

Auckland Art Gallery director Rhana Devenport will be the curator for New Zealand’s presentation and Auckland Art Gallery will be a significant contributor to the project.

In Pursuit of Venus [infected] is a filmic re-imagining of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique.

In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations of the time to produce Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique (1804), a sophisticated 20-panel scenic wallpaper. Mirroring a widespread fascination with the Pacific voyages undertaken by Captain Cook, de Bougainville and de la Perouse, its exotic themes referenced popular illustrations of that time.

Two hundred years later, Lisa Reihana has employed 21st century digital technologies to animate Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique. Enlivened with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies, a vast video panorama is populated by a myriad of people drawn from across New Zealand and the Pacific.

The NBR review (June 25) of her work noted that “Reihana’s vast video work deals with the time that Cook and his scientists spent on Tahiti in 1769 where they had gone to record the Transit of Venus, an event which would lead to the expansion of scientific knowledge, and allow for the accurate calculation of longitude, thus improving navigation and the opening up of trade and colonisation.

“The work, which is projected on to a wall 25m long and 4m high is just over 30 minutes long and is a continuous loop which is probably the equivalent of 250m of panorama. The work slowly moves from right to left revealing a number of tableaux involving Cook, his sailors, the various scientists such as Joseph Banks as well as various Pacific peoples including the intellectual and navigator Tupaia.”

“The work provides three themes or narratives that interweave in a complex investigation of cross-cultural ideas. There is the European experience of encountering new lands and people, the experience of the Pacific people encountering the foreigners and there is also the interaction with the background landscape based on the wallpaper design.”

Challenging historical and contemporary stereotypes, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] returns the gaze of imperialism with a speculative twist that disrupts notions of beauty, authenticity, history and myth. It is designed for multi-channel projection to create an immersive cinematic experience.

Alastair Carruthers, commissioner for the 2017 Venice Biennale, says “in Pursuit of Venice [infected] has already captured a huge New Zealand audience and international attention with its sensuous reimagining of people, place and time.  In Venice 2017 Lisa Reihana will present a further evolution of her vast and beguiling vision, with new accompanying work.  The exhibition will be irresistible.”

Eleven high-calibre proposals were received for New Zealand’s presentation at the 2017 Venice Biennale. They were assessed by a selection advisory panel, chaired by Arts Council chairman Dick Grant.

Dr Grant says, “This will be New Zealand’s eighth official exhibition at the Venice Biennale.  A series of diverse and powerful presentations by New Zealand artists has preceded it and Creative New Zealand took a very broad view of the possibilities and form that the next presentation might take  I congratulate the selection panel and Mr Carruthers on this powerful decision for 2017.”

The Venice Biennale opens every two years in late May or June and runs for approximately six months. It involves more than 80 countries and attracts mor than 30,000 key international curators, critics, collectors and artists to the three-day Vernissage (preview) period alone. It is the world’s largest and most prestigious international contemporary art exhibition, attended by key curators, writers and collectors.

Lisa Reihana (b 1964 Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine Ngāi Tū) completed a masters in design from the School of Visual Art and Design, Unitec in Auckland in 2014 and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 1987.

Her work has featured in significant international exhibitions including the Museum van Loon, the Amsterdam Film + Media Arts Festival, the Samstag Museum in Toronto, the Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Havana Biennale, the Brooklyn Museum, the Liverpool Biennale, the Asia Society Museum in New York, the Noumea Biennale, the 12th Biennale of Sydney and the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane. Ms Reihana was made an Arts Laureate by the New Zealand Arts Foundation in 2014.

The selection advisory panel for the 2017 Venice Biennale comprised: Alastair Carruthers, commissioner 2017; Aaron Kreisler, head, Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury; Dr Caroline Vercoe, senior lecturer, art history, Auckland University; Charlotte Huddleston, director, St Paul St Gallery; Dayle Mace, patron; Heather Galbraith, associate professor, Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University and commissioner 2015; Judy Millar, artist, Venice 2009; Leigh Melville, head of patrons; Michael Prentice – Arts Council; Rose Evans – Arts Council.  The panel was chaired by Arts Council chairman Dick Grant.

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