表題番号：2017S-157
日付：2018/02/20
研究課題Transoceanian Trajectories: Tracing Global Flows of Representation and Resistance among Pacific Islander Artists
| 研究者所属（当時） | 資格 | 氏名 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| （代表者） | 国際学術院 国際教養学部 | 准教授 | ドボルザーク グレゴリー エリック |
- 研究成果概要
- Special Research Project 2017S-157 "Transoceanian Trajectories: Tracing Global Flows of Representation and Resistance among Pacific Islander Artists" was designed, proposed, and executed as a preliminary phase to a larger project planned for 2019 onwards, a joint research and curatorial project which will entail a symposium, exchange, and exhibition around issues of art, identity, memory, environment, gender, and self-determination between the Pacific Islands and Japan. It was an initial project to complement some of the early work I had already been doing in surveying the work of Pacific Islander (indigenous) contemporary artists, which I conducted in the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Sāmoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand. For this special project, I attended the Venice Biennale of contemporary art in August 2017, where I engaged with Pacific artists there who have succeeded in showing their art internationally, and other non-Pacific artists who work with themes surrounding Oceania. With each of these artists and curators, I conducted visits and interviews, while also viewing how various international audiences engaged with their work. I also viewed the overall exhibitions in Venice and Florence as a way to gain more contextual knowledge of the international art world. This research led to a profound understanding of how difficult it is for indigenous artists, especially artists from the Pacific Islands region, to gain access to international audiences-- but also, how effective art can be when they do succeed in communicating their messages. For instance, Lisa Reihana's work, "Emissaries," won many awards and communicated a devastating history of European colonization in the Pacific Islands which is not easily relatable through mere textual or archival knowledge. These art interventions, together with more creative but rigorous academic work, are required to cultivate better, equal, transoceanic, trans-regional alliances between Japan and its Pacific neighborhood in the 21st century, and this initial research sets the stage for further programs that bridge historical and contemporary understandings of place around urgent themes of climate change, militarism, and globalization.