ROSANNA RAYMOND
 |
|
Full Tusk Maiden, 2009 |
An innovator of the contemporary Pasifika art scene, Rosanna Raymond embodies cutting edge. Born in New Zealand, Rosanna's Samoan heritage has fuelled her artistic endeavours such as re-constructing notions of the Dusky Maiden through performance, poetry, installation, and costume and fashion design. Using her own aesthetics to reclaim and embody the power and dynamism of the Dusky Maiden, Rosanna responded with Full Tusk Maiden (1999). "With both hands placed on her hips and legs spread wide, the Full Tusk Maiden assumes a powerful haka stance-a posture that in many Polynesian cultures denotes defiance and strength... [H]er steady, penetrating gaze conveys in a potent way self-possession, self-sufficiency, and agency. The Full Tusk Maiden is not only beautiful-she is intimidating... rather than being polar opposites, [the dusky maiden and her Full Tusk sibling] are instead two sides of the same coin, flipping back and forth through the transformative space of the wā [vā] when it suits them." (Tamaira 2010, 16-18)
These Pasifika stylings garnered acclaim in Auckland in the 1990s through the art collective Pacific Sisters. Rosanna and her Pacific Sisters created a space where they could artistically express and celebrate their heritage.
Rosanna's art depicts her journey so when she and her family moved to London in October 1999 it was not surprising that she found comfort in and connections with taonga (cultural treasure) in museums; like Rosanna, those taonga were separated from their original lands. Feeling a strong cultural bond to those 'artefacts', she digitally customised tapa to demonstrate its importance in contemporary life. Using her own drawings and handwriting to replicate the chaos of the many 'voices' and layers that exist simultaneously within the work, Ode to a Pale Sina reflects the nature of living in a modern world.
 |
|
Manufactured Savages, 2008 |
From those engagements with museum collections came an exhibition and festival to reconnect contemporary artists with the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's collections. Pasifika Styles (2006), curated by Rosanna and Amiria Salmond invited artists to work with and respond to the museum collection to create arenas for cultural exchange and led to other opportunities for Rosanna such as ethKnocentrix at October Gallery, London (2009). Continuing to develop the Full Tusk Maiden while honouring her ancestors and taonga, Rosanna focuses on the notion of the museum inside the artist in ethKnocentrix through a series of images celebrating the beauty and diversity of the contemporary Pasifika maiden.
 |
| Ode to a Pale Sina, 2003 Words and embellishments Rosanna-Raymond Digital manipulation Delete UK Ngatu courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum |
Rosanna's presence in Europe is part of the growing awareness of and opportunities for contemporary Pacific arts there. Rosanna is hardly limited to Europe, she has held distinguished artist residencies including De Young in San Francisco and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Her work is included in private and public collections including Museum für Völkerkunde, Germany, Auckland Art Gallery, and National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
A dynamic artist, her work is consistent in its celebration of Pasifika and the engagements it invokes and evokes; whether between taonga and contemporary Pacific artists or museums and urban spaces and styles.