Artwork Information

In サ-モアのうた (Sāmoa no Uta) A Song About Sāmoa-Taiheiyō (Pacific), 2023, Yuki Kihara crafts a poignant visual narrative that interlaces the cultural tapestries of Sāmoa and Japan. This fivepiece installation examines the lingering shadows of colonialism, the shifting terrain of transpacific identity, and the ecological crises that tie them together. By recontextualising the 1962 Japanese film King Kong vs. Godzilla, Kihara invites viewers to reconsider the Pacific not as a passive backdrop but as an active participant in global geopolitics. This work is the fourth phase in her broader Sāmoa no Uta series, each instalment circling a different facet of Pacific culture.

Made from Samoan siapo and constructed in the formal style of Japanese kimono, the works bring together two textile traditions that, while culturally distinct, share ceremonial purpose and material rigour. Kihara’s family and collaborating artisans assisted in producing the kimono, honouring the intergenerational transmission of knowledge embedded in their making. Where siapo is rooted in genealogical time, repetition and the labour of barkcloth and dye, kimono design similarly draws from ritual and historical continuity. Their convergence in Kihara’s work is not a collision, but a thoughtful synthesis. There is subtle innovation in the use of siapo to construct the kimono, an intervention that honours both practices while gently unsettling the boundaries of each.

- Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua