The artist, who is of mixed Japanese and Samoan heritage, talks about showcasing queer rights and revealing the toxic influence of colonialism in her works. The artist Yuki Kihara (b1975), who is of Japanese and Samoan descent, brought some tropical […]

The Venice Biennale is irrevocably entangled with questions of representation. Every two years, some eighty nations select an artist or artists to represent them at the world’s largest international art event. For this year’s Biennale, Creative New Zealand sent Yuki […]

To ensure the survival of their species, the dominant male of a school of Tu’u’u-lumane, or the pink skunk clownfish, will change their sex to female. For Yuki Kihara, this phenomenon of the fish’s kinship system debunks the assumptions of […]

One of the first references to the presence of a third gender in French Polynesia in the Western archive can be found in the diary of a marine officer. In 1789, during a stay on the island of Tahiti, George […]

  ‘One of the most remarkable names to emerge from this year’s Venice Biennale is interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara. The first fa’afafine (the Samoan term for third gender). Pasifika, and Asian artist to represent New Zealand there, Kihara reframes history […]

Don’t miss Yuki Kihara in conversation with Kirsty Baker on identity politics, decolonisation, and the environmental crisis through her immersive new work ‘Paradise Camp’ at the 2022 Biennale de Venezia: Artist Profile Issue 59 from Artist Profile on Vimeo. Read […]