Edith Amituanai

MNZM
Amituanai in 2019
Born1980 (age 43–44)
Auckland, New Zealand
EducationUnitec
Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Known forphotography
Websitewww.edithamituanai.com

Edith Amituanai MNZM (born 1980) is a New Zealand photographic artist. In 2007, she was the inaugural recipient of the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award. Examples of her work are held in the collections of Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery, and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

Biography

Amituanai was born in Auckland in 1980 to parents who had emigrated from Samoa.[1][2] She was raised in Christchurch and now is located in Ranui, West Auckland.[3][4][5]

In 2005, Amituanai completed a Bachelor of Design at Unitec Institute of Technology.[6] Amituanai's photography first came to the attention of the art world while she attended Unitec, when her work was included in the Break/Shift exhibition (2004) at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.[7] Her work was later included in the Lara Strongman book Contemporary New Zealand Photographers (2006), documenting her work as an emerging artist.[7] In 2009 she completed her Masters of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.[6] In 2008 she was the first Pasifika artist to be nominated for the Walters Prize for Déjeuner, an exhibition depicting her cousin after a rugby practice session in France.[6][8]

In 2015, Amituanai founded ETA (Edith's Talent Agency), an art project documenting the communities near her local suburb of Ranui.[5] She is also the arts co-ordinator at Ranui Action Project, a local community development programme.[5]

2019 was the first survey exhibition of her work at the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington curated by Ane Tonga and included over 60 of her photographs.[1] Amituanai received the KLM Paul Huf Award, Amsterdam,[4] and in 2019 Amituanai was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to photography and community.[9][6]

Her artwork is held in the collections of Te Papa (the national museum of New Zealand), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.[1]

Artistry

Amituanai's photography focuses on diaspora experiences in New Zealand,[2] family communities,[6] urban environments and amplifying unseen and unheard people.[5] Many of her works depict Pasifika in Aotearoa, and transnational domestic interiors of Samoan diaspora houses.[5] Amituanai is inspired by documentary photography, and has a commitment to community engagement with her subjects.[10] Amituanai's documentation of diaspora communities in West Auckland have been described as challenging the dominant myth that West Auckland is primarily a European area.[11] Her work features aspects of both straight documentary photography and staged photography.[7]

Her works variously confront her parents' cultural values in a new context,[2] celebrate her parents' generation's Samoan traditions such as marriage in a New Zealand context,[7] and document the ways in which Pasifika communities establish new lives while maintaining connections to their homeland.[12]

Personal life

Amituanai got married in 2005. At the time, she was the first "Mrs Amituanai" in her husband's household for 14 years, after the untimely death of his mother.[7]

Residencies

Books

Double Take (2019) - ISBN 978-1-877309-43-4.

Keep on Kimi Ora (2018) – ISBN 9780473437619, 0473437619 – collaboration with Kimi Ora Primary School in Flaxmere.[13][14]

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Edith Amituanai: Double Take | Adam Art Gallery". Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Lolohea, Sitelimani F (2007). "Appropriating and Contesting 'Spatial'Specification and Diaspora-the photographic works of Edith Amituanai". Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies. 5 (1): 15–34.
  3. ↑ "Edith Amituanai". Anna Miles Gallery. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Edith Amituanai | Arts Foundation Marti Friedlander Photographic Award". Arts Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Lopesi, Lana (2018). "Beyond essentialism: Contemporary Moana art from Aotearoa New Zealand". Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry. 46 (1): 106–115. doi:10.1086/700252. ISSN 1465-4253. S2CID 191521987.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Edith Amituanai – The University of Auckland". The University of Auckland. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bugden, Emma (2006). "You and me and everyone we know". Artlink. 26 (2): 38–43. ISSN 0727-1239.
  8. ↑ Tyler, Linda (2009). "Look this Way". In Macdonald, Finlay; Kerr, Ruth (eds.). West: The History of Waitakere. Random House. p. 291. ISBN 9781869790080.
  9. ↑ "Queen's Birthday Honours 2019 – Citations for Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit". Queen's Birthday Honours 2019 – Citations for Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  10. ↑ Vercoe, Caroline (1 October 2017). "Contemporary Māori and Pacific artists exploring place". Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies. 5 (2): 131–143. doi:10.1386/nzps.5.2.131_1.
  11. ↑ Stanhope, Zara (21 December 2020). "Photographing Moments to be Seen". The Journal of Public Space. 5 (4): 177–192. doi:10.32891/jps.v5i4.1424. ISSN 2206-9658. S2CID 239720663.
  12. ↑ "Edith Amituanai". Photobook / NZ. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  13. ↑ "Keep on Kimi Ora: Collaborating with Edith Amituanai". Lift Education. 28 May 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  14. ↑ Amituanai, Edith (1 January 2018). "Keep on Kimi Ora / Edith Amituanai". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  15. ↑ "Mrs Amituanai » RAMP Gallery". rampgallery.co.nz. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  16. ↑ "Through The Keyhole | Enjoy Contemporary Art Space". enjoy.org.nz. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  17. ↑ "Freedom Farmers: Edith Amituanai, La fine del mondo". Auckland Art Gallery. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  18. ↑ "Edith and George: in our sea of islands | Corban Estate Arts Centre". ceac.org.nz. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  19. ↑ "The moon was talking – Te Uru". www.teuru.org.nz. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  20. ↑ "Asia Pacific Triennial: New futures imagined". QAGOMA Blog. 2 December 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  21. ↑ "Pictures they want to make : recent Auckland photography". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  22. ↑ "Time Drag curated by Allan McDonald". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  23. ↑ "$25,000 award for NZ photographers established". The Big Idea. 29 November 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
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