Fale-ship Home Residency 2020

Her multi-cultural background heavily influences her work and how she sees the world. She does everything from smearing paint on canvas to hot gluing feathers on self-made regalia to covering herself in fake blood just to tell her stories. She tenaciously teaches herself new skills, to create bigger and better work that touches its viewers. Her residency took place right in her backyard in Grey Lynn, Auckland. 

Fale-ship Home Residency 2020

In my FALE-ship work I’ve focused on my journey with spiritualism and shamanism. Shamanism, for me, is about healing.  

In my academic studies of the practice of shamanism, there is a common thread of the initiation experience across multiple cultures. The prospective shaman passes out and is pulled down to Pulotu (or the cultures version of the underworld) and shown images of their physical body being ripped apart in front of their eyes and put back together again. This happens so they may learn how to heal themselves and ultimately others. They then gain consciousness and begin practicing as a shaman with the new acquired knowledge.  

The words “Atua”, “Otua”, “Kalou” translates to God in Maori, Samoan, Tongan and Fijian. The first section of the video is depicting meditative chanting that helps the shaman submit to the force that takes them under. The second half of the moving image depicts the shaman conversing with their ancestors in Puluto (show through the text). I also paid respects to the Maori concept of Te Kore with the deep shadows and ambiguous audio. The aesthetic of the ancestor covered in blood, also pays homage to Lilith, the divine feminine.