‘‘Into the Arms of my Coloniser’’, Christopher Ulutupu (DPAG Rear Window)
THE title of Christopher Ulutupu’s video work, Into the Arms of my Coloniser (2016) acknowledges and points towards the inherent ambiguity, even risk, of how an artwork exploring race, gender and sexuality can reinscribe the very otherness it is attempting to challenge or overcome. Ulutupu, who is of Samoan, Niuean and German descent, quite literally alerts the viewer to the slipperiness of this terrain with the intermittent presence of two welloiled, topless, male body builders. Other signifiers of how difficult it is to not run into the arms of the coloniser include the sandcovered stage, a lone palm tree, a monitor typically screening stereotypical scenes of idyllic island beaches, and a cast of characters who appear together in some segments, but do not acknowledge each other. Everyone, it seems, is wrapped up in their own worlds.
Ulutupu’s 16minute video work is divided into seven vignettes, or chapters, separated by intertitles that indicate the theme of each vignette with a short quotation. Each vignette takes place on the fakesand beach at night, and the loosely interconnected cast includes the body builders, three Pacific Island singers, a Palagi couple, a family, a giant white rabbit (soft toy) and minimal props. All are young and attractive, but the performativity — the nature of each character’s performance of identity — is variously enacted. Some performances, such as the oiled body builders, amplify the complex mix of stereotypes, expectations, and coconstruction of identities.