The Big Idea explores how Lisa Reihana* created a worldwide following and what inspires her masterful creations.
There’s not a whiff of the tortured artist about Lisa Reihana.
It may be there, under the surface, wreaking havoc on her subconscious, but on a late autumn Auckland day, she presents as sunny and settled and as sorted as can be.
Perhaps it’s lockdown; the quarantine period has been therapeutic for Reihana. “This is my first opportunity to be lazy, so COVID-19 has been nice,” says the renowned multidisciplinary artist.
“I’ve been so busy over the past eight years – we did 21 exhibitions last year and I haven’t had a Christmas break for about four years – that I’ve been enjoying not doing too much at all.”
By the time the 55-year-old went into self-isolation in March, she’d clocked up plenty of work hours and air miles. Incredibly, Reihana opened six shows around the globe in the summer of 2020.
Ihi — “a major video work” for the Aotea Centre foyer — was unveiled in Auckland in February. Reihana and her partner and co-creator James Pinker travelled to Germany and Holland for openings of her career-defining In Pursuit of Venus (Infected).
She popped into Paris for a collaboration with shoemaker Christian Louboutin, and jetted across the ditch for the Biennale of Sydney, where Nomads of the Sea, another video installation, opened on Cockatoo Island in mid-March.
COVID-19 put paid to all that: her exhibitions are now closed. But Lockdown Lisa has other things to get on with…
Read the full article on The Big Idea here.
*Lisa Reihana is an internationally renowned Maori artist with Jewish (grandmother) and Ngapuhi, Ngati Hine, Ngai Tu ancestry who has played a leading role in the development of image-based and multi media art in Aotearoa. Find out more about her here and see her work here.
