Postcards Unlocked #38 | Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Sāmoan artist & poet based in New York, United States

Postcards Unlocked #38  | Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Dan Taulapapa, Self Portrait Dan Taulapapa McMullin. (2015) Oil on Paper. 76cm x 50cm

Born in Sendai, Japan in 1957, Dan Taulapapa McMullin is an artist and poet from Sāmoa Amelika (American Samoa). His book of poems Coconut Milk (University of Arizona Press, 2013) was on the American Library Association Rainbow List Top Ten Books of the Year. In 2018, Samoan Queer Lives, co-edited with Yuki Kihara, is being published by Little Island Press of Aotearoa.

Coconut Milk (Collected Poems of Dan Taulapapa McMullin). (2013). Painting on cover "Pink Heaven" by Dan Taulapapa McMullin

“A poetic corrective to the West’s violent appropriations and erasures.”

— Hyperallergic Magazine

Samoan Queer Lives (Co-edited by Dan Taulapapa McMullin and Yuki Kihara) (2018). Archival photograph on cover Shevon Matai

“An unforgettable blend of narrative and history, a story of Samoa and boys and how to remember those who know and accept homosexuality not as an alter-Native, but as a Native, lifestyle.”

— Great Plains Quarterly

Taulapapa's performance poem The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft. His artwork was in exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, De Young Museum, Musée du quai Branly, Auckland Art Gallery, Oakland Museum, Bishop Museum, NYU's /A/P/A Gallery, and the United Nations. His film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award.

100 Tikis is an art appropriation video at the intersection of tiki kitsch and indigenous sovereignty, and was the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone First Peoples Festival in Tiohtiá:ke-Montréal; and was an Official Selection in the Fifo Tahiti International Oceania Documentary Film Festival; and at Pacifique Festival in Rochefort, France. Taulapapa's art studio and writing practice is based in Hudson, New York, where he lives with his partner. He is currently working on photo-collage and appropriation books.

Soa (2016) Photocollage on aluminum. 20cm round

 

The 'Postcards Unlocked' Project featured 40 artists over 40 days via Tautai’s social media platforms as we navigated new waters during the 2020 Aotearoa Lockdown.

Learn more about the project here.