Modes of Adaptation: Identifying Matriarchal Influences in Art Making and Translating Knowledge Through Spatial Apparatuses

This research practice focuses on articulating the role of craft making as a mode of adaptation that is driven by a set of generational knowledge passed down from my ancestors. The instrumental translation of knowledge through sculptural and installation artworks values matriarchal influences, particularly my maternal grandmother’s craft making. These artworks unpack traditional Samoan methods such as lalaga and ula making, through alternative use of materials or methods that reference the labour of performing these processes. I am interested in questioning the different ways that craft can depict lineage, as well explore geographical migration – this being my own move from Samoa to New Zealand. Various potential understandings of the concept of space are explored to include the idea of memory space as the threshold that holds ethereal moments of family history. An analysis of space is investigated through methods such as crocheting, welding and video animation, that specifically denote the role of a diagram in creating, illustrating and evoking a travelled sense of space