IN*TER*IS*LAND COLLECTIVE
Be(com)ing Global
This is the first of four conversations for the Forever Fresh Talanoa Series produced in collaboration with Contenporary HUM.
We listen in to Tanu Gago (FAF SWAG) and Rosanna Raymond (SaVĀge K'lub) reflect on their International experiences on recent art projects. This series continues with a written response by writer and curator Ioana Gordon-Smith
CW: this video references racism
Be(com)ing Global
'BE(COM)ING GLOBAL' features Rosanna Raymond and Tanu Gago reflecting on recent projects—Raymond with SaVAge K’lub at Birmingham Museum in the UK and Gago with FAFSWAG at documenta 15 in Kassel. The pair discuss the difficulties of presenting internationally and of sustaining an art practice, being boxed in as 'other', and what it means to be Moana artists working in countries with cultural amnesia over their colonial pasts.
Tanu Gago
Tanu Gago (He/Him) MNZM, is an interdisciplinary artist of Samoan heritage working at the intersections of, digital arts, live performance, film and Queer activism. Gago is an ‘artist in developement’ with Piki Films, and one of the founding members of FAFSWAG; a Queer Indigenous arts collective based in Aotearoa and who are 2020’s NZ Arts Foundation Arts Laureates.
Rosanna Raymond
Sistar S’pacific aka Rosanna Raymond is notable producer of, and commentator on contemporary Pacific culture in Aotearoa and internationally. She is a long-standing member of the art collective the Pacific Sisters and a founding member of the SaVAge K’lub. Raymond specialises in working within museums and tertiary institutions, and has achieved international renown for her writing, poetry, performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word. Raymond was awarded the CNZ Pacific Senior Artist for 2018 acknowledging her contribution to the arts, a former Chester Dale Fellow at the Met in NYC and holds a Master of Philosophy from Auckland University of Technology.
Ioana Gordan-Smith
Ioana Gordon-Smith is a Sāmoan/Pākehā arts writer and curator living in Aotearoa New Zealand. Across her work is a commitment to Moana arts practices and their histories. She has held roles at Artspace Aotearoa, Objectspace and Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, and currently works as the Curator Māori Pacific at Pātaka Art + Museum. Ioana is the Assistant Curator of Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp, the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, and co-curator of the international Indigenous triennial, Naadohbii: To Draw Water in Winnipeg, Canada. She is also the co-founder and co-editor of Marinade: Aotearoa Journal of Moana Art and a trustee for Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. As well as writing for art journals, magazines and exhibition catalogues, Ioana has contributed to publications produced by Thames & Hudson, Routledge, ARP Books and Te Papa Press.