Mo I Tatou (For Us)

Raymond Sagapolutele, Chris Van Doren, 2015

Mo I Tatou (For Us)
Raymond Sagapolutele

Fresh Gallery Ōtara
5/46 fair Mall, Ōtara Town Centre, Auckland

27 January – 2 March 2024
Opening: Saturday 27 January

For Mo I Tatou, artist Raymond Sagapolutele explores the process he developed for the ongoing Out of Context (2015- ) series of photographic portraits. The common thread among his sitters is their contemporary framing of who they are as Moana in Aotearoa—a generation mostly born here, shaped by their lived experiences on this land.

In approaching the question of Moana identity in Aotearoa, Sagapolutele took a path that was led by the question of ‘who are we?’, drawing from the community he is familiar with and one he is part of, the Pacific diaspora, as well as urban Māori from his generation.

Mo I Tatou features individual portraits that have fed into the larger Out of Context project alongside two images from Siva Samoa / Polyswag (2012). The latter project was the spark that started the fire that would become Out of Context and would frame the context and narrative of Sagapolutele’s ongoing artistic practice.

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