Somatic Sotia
Torika Bolatagici2 March- 5 March 2016
Opening Night: Tuesday 2 March 2016; 5-7 PM
Fijian military bodies have become a valuable commodity in the economy of war. In Somatic Sotia, Torika Bolatagici presents photographic, video and mixed-media works that explore Fijian masculinity, militarism and the intersections between gender, embodied knowledge, commodification, migration and globalisation.
Drawing on her research into archival military footage of nuclear tests in the Pacific and contemporary soldier images from social media, the work in Somatic Sotia is concerned with the ways the Fijian military body has been mythologised and constructed through colonial and neo-colonial representation and the ways Fijian agency is performed in vernacular contexts.
Image: Torika Bolatagici, includes aspects of Export Quality #4 (2012), Hand stenciled masi designs on backlit lm, approximately 42 x 59 cm.
