Exploring Memory and Self-Identity Through Installation Art

Abstract

Among Aotearoa New Zealand’s Pacific diaspora, contemporary discussions of culture and identity are highly complex and multifaceted. Through postcolonial theoretical standpoints and creative outputs, many Pacific artists have sought to explore and express these complex discussions in order to further understand themselves in a postcolonial setting. Having mixed-heritage ancestry can compound this complexity, adding multiple contexts to already multiplicitous discussions. This article contextualises components from the author’s body of work Uso 4 Life, an art installation conceived from formative memories and experiences pertinent to the development of the artist’s identity as a mixed-heritage Samoan. It also explores how installation practices can be used as a basis for such investigation.