Spectacular title coming from Auckland Art Gallery11 July

   

Lisa Reihana: in Pursuit of Venus is an exquisitely illustrated and designed exploration of a six-year project by one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading artists.

Comprising 10 essays and a comprehensive interview with Lisa Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Ngātihine, Ngāitū), the book establishes the artistic and cultural contexts of in Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015, traces the artist’s inspiration and describes the work’s complex production.

Presented in an innovative, sympathetic design which combines 18th-century typographic sensibilities with contemporary and historic Māori and Pacific imagery, the texts provide the most detailed analysis of Reihana’s practice to date. They are supplemented by two beautiful plate sections that highlight the work’s key scenes and create stunning portraits of the main characters within them.

The book’s importance now and in the future lies not only in its meticulous examination of Reihana’s most ambitious artwork. The writers’ identification and descriptions of a highly sophisticated, evolving pan-Pacific artistic movement – underpinned by the re-examination of colonial politics and the power of image making – makes this book essential reading for people interested in the art, cultures and politics of this part of the world.

Publishedby Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki 

DUE 11 

JULY 2015

RRP $75.00, 128 pages, 290 x 230 mm,colour images throughout ISBN 978-0-86463-301-9

Texts by Rhana Devenport, Anne Salmond, Vivienne Webb, Nicholas Thomas, Sean Cubitt,  Sean Coyle, Deidre Brown, Caroline Vercoe, Sean Mallon, Geoffrey Batchen and Rereata Makiha