ALTERATION

FAFSWAG ARTS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS

Alteration

FAFSWAG Arts Collective 2013 - 2023

“Your story about us is dying. Soon, so shall your legacy”

The lives of Queer Indigenous people are currently situated within a colonial Imaginarium. A particular set of restraints that seek to minimise and devalue our sovereignty and self-determination. For artists forced to endure and survive these suffocating sets of determinants and inherited circumstances, it has become overwhelmingly apparent how history continues to perpetuate a colonial settler vision for our people. One where Anglo-European and neo-colonial ideals have violently inserted themselves within our cultural and economic power structures. The most evident of which remains the colonial gaze on our bodies, the fetish of our culture and sexuality and the cultural appropriation of our customs and traditions; subsequently fabricating a grand narrative and placing at its centre, a saviour complex and a centuries long entitlement to our natural resources.

While this corrosive process remains an ongoing attempt to alienate us from our power, our resources and our self-determination, as queer brown communities that are fltered through this disembodied process and monolithic abstraction, art has empowered resilience and space for disobedience and disruption. Artists have come to recognise the power of using de-colonial tools to reclaim our story away from the people who have stolen them. Since the proliferation of social media, many of these cultural assumptions have begun to be dismantled in the public domain. Thanks to technology allowing everyday people and communities to offer a counter-narrative to colonial settler narratives of the Moana and its people.

Meeting at the intersections of cultural archival practices, digital technology and queer Indigenous storytelling, Alteration presents a series of complex inter-textual lenses, on the pluralities of Queer Indigenous Identity. Bringing into focus its fbrous nuances, fraught politics, and social context, this body of work is able to redefne its own grand cultural ambitions and aspiration to be more than the recipients of colonial violence and historical trauma. To seek out a vision of queer Indigenous futurism that is abundant and visionary. To understand where we come from, what we’ve overcome and where we are heading, forever altering the narrative that has been imposed on us through centuries of colonial intrusion.

Compiled over ten years of Indigenous driven, collective artistic output, the FAFSWAG arts collective presents a mixed media archival exhibition of signifcant works created between 2013 - 2023. Including their ground-breaking digital interactive experience fafswagvogue, produced by Carthew Niel and Taika Waititi’s production company Piki Films, with funding from New Zealand on Air. As well as the 2018 Walter Prize nominated body of work entitled Fāgogo by Creative New Zealand Emerging Pacifc Artist Award recipient Pati Tyrell.

Originally created for the 2020 Sydney Biennale NIRIN, Re-Moanafcation by James Waititi demonstrates the fuid adaptability of interdisciplinary practice. Especially as a project that draws from a variety of mediums and genres, refecting the complex nature of contemporary life for Moana people, whose traditions also pull from complex explorations of identity & place, relationships to the environment, ritual & ceremony, and genealogy & ancestry. Within the framework of Alteration these works are presented as large scale, duo wall installations.

Among the various collections of digital photography by principal photographers, Mahia Jermaine Dean, Pati Tyrell, Tanu Gago and guest photographer Hohua Ropati Kurene, Alteration also features a collection of moving image works entitled Diaspora Rendered - a compilation of short digital works and experimental flms created by members of the FAFSWAG Arts Collective. Combined, these works explore the experiences of cultural displacement and try to unpack the term ‘Pacifc Diaspora’, what it means to live in our current time with bodies and identities that have navigated centuries of displacement, both geographically and now temporally, with the proliferation of the worldwide internet.

These works show artists using digital tools to reclaim narratives, explore uncharted space, contemplate on lineage and legacy, and to redefne preconceived Ideas of self, family, home and culture. This compilation renders the experiences of our people in HD resolution, piecing together pixels of queer life, as Moana peoples in constant motion and growth, rebelling against a now predictable and fxed colonial oppression.

Also featured in this collection is the series entitled Takatāpui by Samoan Filmmaker and award-winning photographer Tanu Gago. The series documents Māori Takatāpui community over three years, culminating in over 100 portraits of Queer Māori folk in a context of their culture and heritage. Finally, rounding out the exhibition is the work ATUA, an interactive sculptural AR project also produced by Piki Films and Wrestler Studios. Launched in 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival ATUA, presents a digital rendering of Tekore - a cultural concept of time and space embodied as a nonbinary celestial being. Generated from an IOS device the app works in tandem with a Pou Whenua (Landmarking), together the sculpture places users into a story about the Moana and the cosmos.

Alteration the exhibition is the culmination of ten years of archival practice, and two years of co-design, co-curation, research and production. Created by: Jermaine Dean, Falencie Filipo, Tanu Gago, Tapuaki Helu, Elyssia Wilson Heti, Nahora Ioane, Hōhua Ropate Kurene, Moe Laga-Toleafoa, Tim Swann, Pati Solomona Tyrell, James Waititi. With support from: Infamy Apparel, Piki Films, RESN, Wrestler, New Zealand on AIR, Creative New Zealand, PANNZ, Ari Studio, Activate Auckland, Auckland Council, Circuit Aotearoa, Vunilagi Vou, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Ruangrupa Arts Collective.

Writing | Tanu Gago Image | Pati Tyrell - Making Space, COCA 2017 by Hōhua Ropate Kurene

FAFSWAG was established in 2013 as an informal Queer art collective from south Auckland. Responding to the lack of representation within the creative industries, the collective has come to redefne what it means to occupy a fuid sexuality & gender spectrum, a multi-cultural identity and a growing interdisciplinary practice.

As artists and activists FAFSWAG is committed to social change through arts and innovation, producing bespoke cultural activations that are cutting edge, culturally responsive and socially relevant. Operating across a multitude of interdisciplinary art forms and genres, FAFSWAG artists work collaboratively to activate public and digital space, speaking to our contexts as Queer Indigenous arts practitioners.

In 2017 FAFSWAG were selected as the company in residence at the Basement theatre and over the course of a year created three award winning shows, including Fa’aafa which has toured to BATS Theatre in 2018 as part of the Wellington International Fringe Festival. In the same year FAFSWAG was the artist in residence at Artspace Aotearoa and delivered a series of community occupations that saw the ‘Auckland Underground Vogue Scene’ take over the gallery, which was documented in the VICE global documentary of the same name, as well as their own Interactive documentary fafswagvogue.com.

The collective has since exhibited, performed and presented work around the world, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris France, Moku Pacifc HQ in London, Emergency Gallery in Vevey Switzerland, Rotterdam International Film Festival, ImagineNATIVE Toronto Canada, Asinabka Indigenous arts Festival in Ontario Canada, MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and in 2020 represented New Zealand at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney NIRIN. In 2022 FAFSWAG presented Alteration, a mixed media archival exhibition across three separate sites in Kassel, Germany as part of Documenta 15. While collective members Tanu Gago and Jermaine Dean launched their sculptural AR project entitled ATUA at the 2022 Sundance International Film Festival.

Over the past ten years

FAFSWAG have had the pleasure of collaborating with some of Aotearoa’s innovators and creative misfts, as well as some of the most exciting companies operating today. Apple, AIR New Zealand, RESN, VICE, The Discovery Channel, Les Mills, Neil and Liam Finn, and Taika Waititi and Carthew Neil’s production company PIKI Films. The work of the artists has been continually supported by national funding bodies, Creative New Zealand, New Zealand on AIR, PANNZ and the Rei Foundation and the Rule Foundation.

FAFSWAG Cofounders Pati Solomona Tyrell and Tanu Gago continue to demonstrate Pacifc excellence, with Tyrell being the youngest nominee for the Walters Prize in 2018 and Gago being awarded a Queen’s Merit of Honour for services to the Arts and the Pasifka LGBTQIA+ community. Tyrell is the Creative New Zealand Emerging Pacifc Artist award recipient and Gago the Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacifc artist recipient of 2021 respectively. In the same year FAFSWAG Arts Collective was awarded a New Zealand Arts Foundation, Arts Laureate Award for interdisciplinary arts practice; the frst of its kind to be awarded in New Zealand.

The collective continues to pioneer Ballroom culture within Aotearoa connecting their communities to the arts, and the global Ballroom community. FAFSWAG is made up of so many talented individual artists that their collective impact can be felt throughout so many spaces in the creative landscape within New Zealand, Aotearoa to date.

FAFSWAG artists include: Jermaine Dean, Falencie Filipo, Tanu Gago, Tapuaki Helu, Elyssia Wilson Heti, Nahora Ioane, Moe Laga-Toleafoa, Tim Swann, Pati Tyrell, James Waititi.

FAFSWAG

Queer Indigenous Arts Collective

Writing | FAFSWAG Image | FAFSWAG Queer Indigenous Arts Collective, New Zealand Arts Laureates Award Ceremony 2021

Pacifc Bizarre

Pati Tyrell, James Waititi, Tapuaki Helu 2019

2019 - Subordinate Tissue / Emergency Gallery / Vevey, Switzerland 2022 - Documenta 15 / Stadt Museum / Kassel, Germany

Alteration

Cast of Fa’aafa 2017 / Basement theatre Created by Pati Solomona Tyrell FAFSWAG Artists in residence / Basement Theatre / 2017

Neon Bootleg

Image - Moe Laga /Ralph Brown 2021 - Neon Bootleg (The B-side) / Basement Theatre 2017 - Neon Bootleg / Basement Theatre

Falencie Filipo: Mariah Sunset in a Pacific Corned Beef landscape 2020 Re-Moanafication / James Waititi

Tim Swann: Banana Palm in a Fanta Sky. 2020 Re-Moanafication / James Waititi

Falencie Filipo: Mariah Sunset in a Pacific Corned Beef landscape 2020 Re-Moanafication / James Waititi

Tim Swann: Banana Palm in a Fanta Sky. 2020 Re-Moanafication / James Waititi

Re-Moanafcation

Re-Moanafcation

TAKATAAPUI

TAKATAAPUI

Takataapui: A Place of Standing / New Zealand AIDS Foundation Vic 2014 - 2018 / Tanu Gago

A Place of

of Standing

Takataapui: A Place of Standing / New Zealand AIDS Foundation Shannon 2014 - 2018 / Tanu Gago

Takataapui // Takatāpui

“ Takatāpui can be used as a gender of it’s self – Māori transgender not-otherwise-specified. As of 2019, the new kupu ‘Irawhiti’ specifies transgender specifically, so we are seeing a move toward using irawhiti or irawhiti takatāpui to replace the more generic takatāpui for transgender identities.

Takatāpui is also used more specifically for Māori attractions or sexual orientations, along the lines of lesbian, bisexual, queer, gay, pansexual, etc.

Takatāpui originally meant an intimate companion of the same gender – as in the story of Tūtānekai and Tiki. Tūtānekai married Hinemoa, and his close relationship with Tiki was not necessarily a rainbow relationship, however contemporary use of Takatāpui most often refers to tāne moe tāne or wahine moe wahine; men who sleep with men and women who sleep with women. “

Takataapui: A Place of Standing / New Zealand AIDS Foundation Levi 2014 - 2018 / Tanu Gago

Only I can Name

Name Me

Only I can Name Me 2021 Artists Ria Hiroki / Elyssia Wilson-Heti Photographer / Pati Tyrell

Only I can Name Me 2021 Artists Ria Hiroki / Elyssia Wilson-Heti Photographer / Pati Tyrell

Only I can Name Me 2021 Artists Ria Hiroki / Elyssia Wilson-Heti Photographer / Pati Tyrell

M A T U A

Matua 1 / Matua 2 - 2014 Artist / Photographer / Pati Tyrell

Cosmology Card Series 2018 - 2020 / Pati Tyrell Created by James Waititi and Mahia Jermaine Dean

Cosmology Card Series 2018 - 2020 Sione Monu / Pati Tyrell / Manu Ha’apai Vaeatangtau

Created by James Waititi and Mahia Jermaine Dean

Cosmology Card Series 2018 - 2020 / Manuha’apai Vaeatangitau

Created by James Waititi and Mahia Jermaine Dean

Cosmology Card Series 2018 - 2020 / Sione Monu

Created by James Waititi and Mahia Jermaine Dean

M A T

A L A

M A T A L A - 2021 / Pati Tyrell / Mahia Jermaine Dean / Tapuaki Helu Created by / Hohua Ropate Kurene / Tapuaki Helu

Savage In The Garden - 2019 / Tapuaki Helu Created by Tanu Gago for Macmillan Brown Artist in Residence 2018

Whanau

Whanau Wall

LOCKDOWN Portraits / James Waititi 2020 Mahia Jermaine Dean

Cast of Fa’aafa - 2017 / Basement Theatre Artists in Residence FAFSWAG / BATZ Theatre Wellington / 2018 Created by Pati Solomona Tyrell

Cast of Fa’aafa - 2017 / Basement Theatre Artists in Residence FAFSWAG / BATZ Theatre Wellington / 2018 Created by Pati Solomona Tyrell

INFERNO / AITU BALL 2019 / Mahia Jermaine Dean / James Waititi Pati Solomona Tyrell

ALTERATION - Exhibition Catalogue

FAFSWAG ARTS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS

Alteration

Alteration

FAFSWAG Arts Collective 2013 - 2023

“Your story about us is dying. Soon, so shall your legacy”

FAFSWAG

Queer Indigenous Arts Collective

Pacifc Bizarre

Neon Bootleg

Re-Moanafcation

Re-Moanafcation

TAKATAAPUI

TAKATAAPUI

A Place of

of Standing

Takataapui // Takatāpui

Only I can Name

Name Me

M A T U A

M A T

A L A

Whanau

Whanau Wall

F A F S W A G