Talanoa
SaVĀge K'lub Closing d’Activation

SaVĀge K’lub: Te Paepae Aora’i – Where the Gods Cannot be Fooled, installation view of John Webber, Portrait of Poedua, daughter of Orio, chief of Ulietea, Society Islands, c1782-85, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2024. Photograph: Kerrie Brewer.
Free, bookings essential
Join Rosanna Raymond, SaVĀge K’lub President, and Sālvādor Brown, Heir Apparent, for an immersive storytelling experience that blends sound, movement, and history.
Raymond and Brown delve into key works in SaVĀge K'lub Te Paepae Aora’i – Where the Gods Cannot be Fooled including the historical John Webber portrait of Tahitian Poetua and Fatu Fe’u’s carving of Samoa’s great goddess Telesa as well as the purākau (oral traditions) connected to instruments of Te Moana Nui, such as the Fagufagu and the Pūtōrino. Their reexamination of narratives that have been silenced and suppressed during colonization offer fresh perspectives on cultural memory and resilience.
This program is part of the SaVĀge K'lub Closing d’Activiations. See the full program for more workshops, talks and performances.
Content Advice
Please be advised that this exhibition includes some artworks with adult themes. The closing weekend d’Activiation events may also include adult themes and stories of colonial violence.
artists

Rosanna Raymond MNZM, Image courtesy of the artist, Photographer: Rebecca Zephyr.
Rosanna Raymond
Sistar S’pacific, aka Rosanna Raymond, is an innovator of the contemporary Pasifika art scene, a long-standing member of the art collective the Pacific Sisters, and the founding member of the SaVĀge K’lub. Raymond has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment and spoken word. A published writer and poet, her works are held by museums and private collectors throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 2018 Raymond was awarded the CNZ Pacific Senior Artist acknowledging her contribution to the arts. Raymond is a former Chester Dale Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City and this year was appointed as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of her services to Pacific Arts.
Sālvādor Brown. Image supplied.
Sālvādor Brown
Sālvādor Brown is an Aotearoa/New Zealand born Samoan/Tuvaluan, Gaelic, Norseman. He is the son of Rosanna Raymond and was raised in the Pasifika arts scene. He is a sound and visual practitioner, videographer and photographer, and uses his knowledge of Tāonga Pūoro in his practice. Brown is in the first phase of his research project Measina Logo - Treasured Sound, which looks at Samoan musical instruments and how they are connected across Moana nui a Kiwa/the Pacific Ocean. The artist recently showed his soundscape DigiTā VāSā at Tautai Pacific Arts Trust in the exhibition Moana Waiwai, Moana Pāti. Brown is working alongside dancer Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann on the relationship between sound and body through the story of Hine-ahu-one.
Brown was the Kaiwhakatangitangi (musician) for the opening of the Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery. He was the Acti.VA.tor for In*ter*is*land Collective in London for the Oceania exposition and at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris in 2019, and participated in the Inaugural London SaVĀge K'lub in 2011. Brown documented these events for the Queensland Art Gallery's 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2015.
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