"To fit into Western frameworks, we are still trying to either deflect entirely from a Pacific aesthetic or embrace an exoticised version of Pacificness... Lonely Island is an attempt to reclaim or birth some semblance of cultural identity lost to colonisation." – Natasha Matila-Smith
Auckland-based artist Natasha Matila-Smith addresses the restrictive representation of Pacific culture within a Western European- society. In vibrant hues she muddles iconic Pacific flora such as coconuts, frangipanis and hibiscus flowers by using digital filters pushed to their limits until the imagery starts to ghost, glitch and fracture. These indeterminate images teeter on the brink between the representational and the abstract in order to deliberately resist the colonial mindset and carve out a potential future.