TE ARA (THE PATH)

Statement, list of works and bio

Statement about the work
My work investigates culture and nonlinearity. These can be thought of as parts in an integrated system and what interests me greatly is that as a hybrid Polynesian, both Pasifika and current Western ideas about reality involve seeing reality as integrated rather than being a system of separated categories. There is a sense in which the West is finally catching up.

The work exhibited at Percy Thomson is an attempt at a small scale integrated system, and traverses several cultures. There are cultural markers such as feathers, a woven hat with a band made from several natural grasses grown on Norfolk Island, old and worn wood, and remade artificial leis - these will speak I feel in specific ways to Pasifika people, although they are presented in a hybrid form. As well as these materials, there is also a large digital vinyl print, vinyl text and poetry, a chair and a website. The work traverses cultures and media, in a way I hope contributes to understanding the vibrancy of contemporary culture and art, and the relevancy of a (hybrid) Polynesian perspective.

This work is both one single entity, and another composed of four separate pieces - this sort of reformation is endemic to work that attempts to engage with nonlinearity.

List of works
1. Te Ara
Mixed media installation
Price on application

1a. i = the square root of minus 1 (no.2)
Woven hat, raku, fibres, kereru, Cape Barren goose and peacock feathers with digital print, collage and oak frame.
NFS

1b. District of Leistavia leis
Remade artificial leis
NFS

1c. Poem-chair
Recycled chair and poem
NFS

1d. Select economic system
Data visualization of voting results from constitution of Leistavia project - digital vinyl print on perspex
$1200

Bio
Ian M Clothier was born in Christchurch New Zealand, South Pacific, and is maternally a direct descendant of the Tahitians and mutineers of HMS Bounty - Pitcairn/Norfolk, a unique hybrid culture. An artist writer, he has exhibited in San Jose (ISEA 2006), Ithaca, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Vancouver, Tallinn (ISEA 2004), Dublin, Hobart and around New Zealand. District of Leistavia projects were also selected for the 2005 Vodafone Digital Art Awards, by ZKM for Public Assembly and the JavaMuseum for net.NET 2. He was awarded an Artist Fellowship by the University of Canterbury in 2005. His written work has been published in the peer reviewed journals Leonardo, Convergence and Digital Creativity, and in the German book Kultureller Umbau: Räume, Identitäten, Re/Präsentationen (Cultural Reconstruction: Spaces, Identities, Re/Presentations).

NB: Pitcairn Island was settled in 1790 by the Tahitians and mutineers; in 1856 the population outgrew the island and everyone moved to Norfolk Island. In the years following some returned to Pitcairn, and today most descendants live on Norfolk Island. Society, language and genetics make the culture distinct and one, even though the two islands are separated by thousands of miles of Pacific ocean.