History Goes Digital

4 March 2004 – New York Times reviews ‘Paradise Now,’ a diverse exhibition of contemporary NZ and Pacific art currently on show at the Asia Pacific Society Museum on Park Avenue. Lisa Reihana’s multiple-screen digital video installation, Native Portraits n.19897, is identified as the show’s “standout.” In the piece, Reihana and friends assume different roles and costumes to re-enact (and re-work) the 19th century studio photographs of Maori individuals and families. Says the Times reviewer, “A beautifully executed examination of the intricacies, intimacies, manipulations and betrayals that underlie relationships built on colonialism, Ms. Reihana’s piece is highly specific, universally applicable and utterly legible. However, it is far from the only reason to visit this instructive exhibition.”