REVIEW: "Towards the Morning Sun" @ Campbelltown Arts Centre
ArtAsiaPacific
Much can be attributed to the Polynesian canvases of Paul Gauguin in establishing the myth of the Pacific Islands as a bounty of exotic idylls, where semi-naked odalisques wrapped in bold patterned pareu lounge. But even at the time of the French artist’s arrival in Tahiti in 1891, Christian missionaries had already played their part in destroying the local mythology in pursuit of religious homogeneity. At Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney, “Towards the Morning Sun” is currently exhibiting nine artists of Pacific heritage whose work interrogates elements of Pacific culture as mediated through the prism of western perception.
ArtAsiaPacific
