Greg Semu
29 May - 21 Jun 2015
GREG SEMU
Two Bodies, two landscapes Zwei Körper, zwei Landschaften
29 May - 21 June 2015
Greg Semu’s work centres on themes such as identity, cultural expulsion, the influence of colonialism on indigenous cultures, and the effects of colonialist transfiguration. Semu’s artistic practice is expressed in photographic series and sound-video recordings, which the artist often combines in space-consuming installations. He creates atmospheric environments and stages dialogues, which comment on and ironically reverse those encounters with the “noble savage” or the “dusky maiden” – the stereotype (black) “South Sea beauty” – that are so often romantically transfigured in documentation dating from the colonial era. In Berlin Semu is researching primarily into the brief “colonial encounter” between Germany and Samoa (1899 to 1914) and the resultant changed genealogies and life stories on both sides.Two Bodies, two Landscapes reflects on this colonial period, characterized so unexpectedly by little animosity – and illuminates the shared, historical episode of cohabitation from a modern viewpoint and using contemporary instruments. Entering the gallery space, visitors find a system consisting of two separate tunnels embracing the full space, which they can enter as they wish and leave at any time: a symbolic division into two which reflects the duality of the cultures that coexisted briefly in an “intimate colonial relationship” (Semu). The two spaces created in this way simultaneously divide and unite the overall space and also – viewed from a historic standpoint – the past and the present, the coloniser and the colonised. In the tunnel system there are light boxes with photographs of a light-/dark-skinned couple in erotic poses as well as an atmospherically charged video and sound projection that seems to literally engulf the visitor. In Two Bodies, two Landscapes Semu, with sensitive ambiguity, also plays with the stereotypes of exoticism, with erotic and sexual power, in order to reveal the historical-political facts to his contemporaries.Greg Semu is receiving a fellowship from Creative New Zealand.
Two Bodies, two landscapes Zwei Körper, zwei Landschaften
29 May - 21 June 2015
Greg Semu’s work centres on themes such as identity, cultural expulsion, the influence of colonialism on indigenous cultures, and the effects of colonialist transfiguration. Semu’s artistic practice is expressed in photographic series and sound-video recordings, which the artist often combines in space-consuming installations. He creates atmospheric environments and stages dialogues, which comment on and ironically reverse those encounters with the “noble savage” or the “dusky maiden” – the stereotype (black) “South Sea beauty” – that are so often romantically transfigured in documentation dating from the colonial era. In Berlin Semu is researching primarily into the brief “colonial encounter” between Germany and Samoa (1899 to 1914) and the resultant changed genealogies and life stories on both sides.Two Bodies, two Landscapes reflects on this colonial period, characterized so unexpectedly by little animosity – and illuminates the shared, historical episode of cohabitation from a modern viewpoint and using contemporary instruments. Entering the gallery space, visitors find a system consisting of two separate tunnels embracing the full space, which they can enter as they wish and leave at any time: a symbolic division into two which reflects the duality of the cultures that coexisted briefly in an “intimate colonial relationship” (Semu). The two spaces created in this way simultaneously divide and unite the overall space and also – viewed from a historic standpoint – the past and the present, the coloniser and the colonised. In the tunnel system there are light boxes with photographs of a light-/dark-skinned couple in erotic poses as well as an atmospherically charged video and sound projection that seems to literally engulf the visitor. In Two Bodies, two Landscapes Semu, with sensitive ambiguity, also plays with the stereotypes of exoticism, with erotic and sexual power, in order to reveal the historical-political facts to his contemporaries.Greg Semu is receiving a fellowship from Creative New Zealand.