About the Artist: Niki Hastings-McFall

Crucifixion, by Niki Hastings-McFall. Vanitas series, 2008. Luminous plastic skeleton, synthetic foliage, lighting unit, acrylic, plastic; height 650 mm, diameter 450 mm.

Niki Hastings-McFall was born in Titirangi, West Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Much of her work is inspired by her Samoan heritage, discovered when she first met her father in 1992. She trained as a jeweler and has a degree in visual arts from the University of Auckland at Manukau School of Visual Arts. Both her jewelry and her larger assemblage works directly reference her urban environment while they maintain strong connections to Polynesian culture.

Photo by Steph Chung

Much of her earlier work is a response to the stereotyping that so often surrounds the South Pacific. As a Pākehā/Samoan, she uses the icon to question the myth. In this way she explores the liminal space that both separates and unites the different cultures that represent her place within a contemporary Pacific context.

Aesthetically speaking, some of her present work is not necessarily overtly Polynesian. However, it is still generated by her signature understanding of past and present Pacific material culture twinned with an urban sensibility of postcolonial Aotearoa. Crucifixion, on this issue's cover, is a part of her "Vanitas" series, in which she explores the journey of life, faith in the world, and the inevitability of death.

Hastings-McFall has exhibited extensively during the fifteen years of her practice, throughout New Zealand and overseas, in countries including Australia, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as in South America. Her work is held in public and private collections in New Zealand (eg, Auckland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland University, Chartwell Collection, Victoria University Wellington, and Auckland Museum) and internationally (eg, British Museum in London, Museum für Völkerkund in Hamburg, Queensland Art Gallery in South Brisbane, and Tjibaou Centre in Noumea).

The art featured in this issue can be viewed in full color in the online version of The Contemporary Pacific via Project MUSE.