The Lecture8

08/05/09

In my point of view, we discussed about “Indigenous Narratives” has connected with art, such as art will talk about tribal native, ethnic, ancestral, majority and minority culture, etc. In definition of “narratives” this word is telling the story, or the other meaning that telling the protagonist and antagonist, so the whole meaning is the composition of artist work had the own background and connotation in it. That is why I like Richard Orjis and Lisa Reihana works, both them done very nice photo shot and represented the great performing art in their works.

About Richard’s composition, I like the way he used computer technical by using the Adobe Photoshop combine with his own photo shot, for example in his series of Gorse and Orchids, 2007. The whole overview and concept idea had represented the natural, native, and kind of talk about the tribal cultural decorations. I have seen his performing video before that the models grab the charcoal, then smeared over their bodies and made their whole figure looked like the “charcoal-burner” very dirty, unclean, also without the clothes. Richard took the models photo shot and used the photoshop to displayed the decorations around the body such as the wreath of flowers around the neck, or covered the face, or mouth. It was a brilliant idea and the symbolism of photograph that showed the significant of the background. Therefore, it was a greatest design which made the photograph became the different visual effects.

Furthermore, I very interested in Lisa Reihana’s works, looked through her series of her compositions, she had introduced the cultural design the way of her family background, it was strong and powerful subject matter that she represented in all the photographs. I like one of her photograph called “mahuika” the strong image that attract me a lot, the old woman setting on the highest chair, textile custom ling on the ground, and the charcoal gray sky in the background. I felt anxious when I saw the photograph, but the color used was very great and can attract people’s vision. Meanwhile, Tessa has let us watched the video “Wog Features” which was made by Lisa Reihana as well. She performed the one of actress in the video, and she used many objects like her own hand crafts which was made by pieces of fabrics, or clay, or other materials to made this feature’s film. She also used “repetition” work to make the object walking , dancing just like the real people. However, it was an artistic film work to present the other funny scene.

In conclusion, after done all the research, I realized that art is not only the frame work and the surface, but also the annotation of the art work and the meaning that what does artist want to present in he/her work.