EXPANDED LABEL: 2018.216 LANDGRAFT
One of Landgraf’s earliest collages, White Woman 1994–2018, laments the culling of manō (sharks) following attacks on swimmers during the 1980s. In some Hawaiian families, sharks are considered ‘aumākua (ancestral gods). Landgraf’s collage features three large white pointers (niuhi — tiger shark) dramatically breaking through the surface of traditional Polynesian wood carvings, as if gasping for air. A wave of text, issuing from a group of missionaries at the base of the image, threatens to engulf the sharks, recognising the clash that often occurs between indigenous and introduced beliefs. The work also comments on the way in which language has been used as a means of conquest throughout history.
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