Month: January 2018

[PDP] Assignment 2 – The current convening #3: Tabu/ Tapu

The current convening #3: Tabu/ Tapu

Lecture by Fijian Lau Island team

The lecture I attended was a short provocation by the team who journeyed to the Fijian Lau Islands. It was interesting that one of the panelists, Maureen Penjueli talked about the process of addressing environmental issues — how the audience hear about the issue, visually see the message and lastly respond to it. In the world we live in, everything moves at a fast pace so we could be oblivious about these. Her point made me think of the process of receiving this information and my reaction to it. Maureen also expressed importance of including the usually missing element of hearing stories from artists as it would be good to understand the motivation behind their work. Maureen believes that the photos and recorded sounds created a narrative about their expedition and allowed the audience to see the observers’ point of view which was refreshing.

It is fascinating to see how art and sounds which intrigued the Polynesians could bring different people together to share a common goal and allowing them to hear about protecting the ocean from different perspectives. Another stimulating point mentioned by one other panelist, Dr Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka’uta was the importance of protecting what is left of the ocean since so much has been taken away. She wants us to acknowledge that there is indeed a lot of potential in the ocean but that it is a temporal space nonetheless and if we are not careful we may damage it. The message Dr Cresantia wants to bring across is the importance of protecting the ocean is a huge responsibility for many people. Through the lecture, it gave me a better insight towards the importance of ocean for the French Polynesians, and the integration of art to address environmental issues and space.

Queen and Bird Fish Prince costumes by Laura Anderson Barbata

The Oceanic Exhibition was an eye opener where art and environment were combined together to create a better understanding of the importance of protecting French Polynesia’s environment and ocean. Out of all of them, the artworks that stood out the most to me were “Queen” and “Bird Fish Prince” costumes from performance Ocean Calling in 2017. They were created by the artist, Laura Anderson Barbata. She was inspired by forms of the ocean and the communities that have a close relationship with it when she visited Papua New Guinea. This brought about the concept of implementing nature elements by layering them into the costumes. She then sketched out various designs combining elements from the ocean with fabric. It was a brilliant way to bring about a new perspective of merging nature and art. Laura’s costumes were an interpretation of the ocean in Papua New Guinea. Performers would wear them, defining their oceanic creatures role, with the accompaniment of music produced from drums and large conshells. It showed the connection between humans and the ocean. The sounds produced by the small conshells through the performers movement allows the audience to hear the natural sound of nature. I believe that the incorporation of the ocean with art via visual costume and sound in Laura’s work was influenced by her environment where she grew up near the ocean in Mexico. Laura wanted to use the performance as a way to bring about the importance of protecting our ocean and translates into a language where people could experience and sense it. The performance was also to highlight the importance of the agreement signed by Pacific Island Countries and Territories so as to improve Ocean governance.

Through the works created by the Fijian Lau Island team and Laura, I think that arts plays an important role in creating a common platform to engage in environmental, climate change and nature issues. I believe that arts bridge the gap among people who though may speak different languages, are still able to experience, sense and relate to the issues raised. Different people may have different interpretation of the nature elements used due to the environment they were brought up. This would create a discussion among people so as to better understand their perspective and learn from one another.