Parekohai Whakamoe
3 May - 6 June 2002

On first glance, the installation looks like political propaganda. The tableau contains an iconic double portrait whose subject is spread across each of the two walls opposite. A group of fliers below provide questionable information in support of the man and his ideology. The reader expects to find a political manifesto but is met instead with an array of intimate personal details. The imagery and text refer directly to the author's lover (whose charismatic face is featured in the double portrait painted in a style made famous in The West by "cult of personality" figures such as Mao, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein).

The dreamy romantic reverie adopts the idealistic and fanatical tendencies one would find in a political manifesto or the texts of religious dogma. The impassioned rhetoric is utilised to express a lovesick struggle for one-upmanship. In addition, the sacrilegious use of its form exposes the naivety of its maker. It reveals how world politics can become redundant when one is bent on the pursuit of fanatical love and fervent desire.

The scene is set for love, hate, obsession, and fascination. There is glamour, passions and power plays made by one desperate lover towards the other. Inner tensions are brought to the fore with all the embarrassingly sentimental hero-worship, self-centred positioning and paranoid musings layed bare. The viewer has the opportunity to ponder the material without the imposition of being personally involved. She/He can scoff at the lovesick ramblings, smirk a wry smile of recognition, or shake her/his head in weary dismay.

"A voyeuristic journey to the interior of one woman's struggle for perfect love in a crazy world." Sharon Lovetruck, author of "The Sweet Morning After."

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