The pearl

In The pearl, Angela Tiatia conjures a speculative world made ready for a recast idea of the Pacific female, one no longer a colonial image of subservience but a self-determined, powerful presence.

Described by Tiatia as a ‘digital tapa’, an animative version of traditional barkcloth, this work sits in dialogue with French modernist Henri Matisse. His small bronze Venus in a shell (created in 1930, the year of his visit to Tahiti) prompted Tiatia’s reimagining of the Greco-Roman myth of Aphrodite/Venus. Venus – symbol of harmony, beauty and love – was born in sea foam and emerged from a shell, just as the creator-god Ta’aroa, was born from a clam shell. The pearl offers her a new, bountiful home.

Tiatia draws on the ancient to create a bold, joy-filled vision of Oceanic Futurism in the cradle of the Pacific – a place ready for a new Venus to emerge. Engulfed in water at the heart of Tiatia’s world is a memorial stone from Taputapuātea, an ancient and sacred marae where people would travel across vast flows of ocean to meet, worship and share knowledge.