Publication Name

The Dominion Post

Author(s)

Gregory O'Brien

Wellington poet and art curator Gregory O'Brien writes from Easter Island, where he helped install the Kermadec - Nine artists in the South Pacific exhibition in the school hall of Hanga Roa.

A major exhibition of contemporary art on any Pacific Island is a rare and unexpected event, but even more so on Easter Island, which also happens to be the most remote human settlement on the planet. How might a show of contempoarary paintings, photographs and sculptures from New Zealand be received in a place so emphatically associated with the distant past - in particular with its famous stone statues, or "moai"?

On an island where nearly all visitors are tourists, intent on taking home digital pictures and souvenirs, the fact we had brought something for the local people - an exhibition - was greeted with surprise, initially, then with gratitude and enthusiasm.

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Read the full article, Far Away, Yet so Close, on the Kermadecs website.