Lisa Reihana in Perth, Western Australia

Direct from the Venice Biennale, and on show at John Curtin Gallery in Perth, Western Australia, Lisa Reihana: Emissaries reimagines, in an act of cultural reclamation, Captain Cook’s encounters with the First Nations people of the Pacific. This interview features the centrepiece of the show, the epic video, in Pursuit of Venus (infected), 2015-17, where Reihana incorporates performers into a static artwork. The work was inspired by the 20-panel French Neoclassical wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, created in 1804-05, which depicts Pacific Islanders as European in appearance, inspiring Reihana to include "real people with real Pacific bodies" in the work.
The exhibition includes antique telescopes, plus 18th and 19th century works on paper from the Kerry Stokes Collection, and the specimen cabinets of Joseph Banks.
Lisa Reihana: Emissaries is on show at John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Western Australia until 29 April, 2018.
Produced by the Artist's Chronicle.