My Samoan Girl

Person in Photograph Shigeyuki Kihara Samoan
Photographer Sean Coyle
2004–2005
Not on view
Shigeyuki Kihara
b. Samoa, 1975
My Samoan Girl, 2004–05
Fa’a fafine: In a Manner of a Woman series
C-print, 2007
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Evelyn A. J. Hall
Charitable Trust and Stephanie H. Bernheim Gifts, 2007
2007.356

Kihara has created an adaptation of a clichéd studio tableau, presenting herself as women were sometimes seen in colonial images. Her reenactment of a photograph by Thomas Andrew confronts erroneous ideas and cultural perceptions that were perpetuated in the original tableaus.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: My Samoan Girl
  • Artist: Shigeyuki Kihara (Samoan, born 1975)
  • Person in Photograph: Shigeyuki Kihara (Samoan, born 1975)
  • Photographer: Sean Coyle
  • Date: 2004–2005
  • Geography: Samoa
  • Medium: Chromogenic print on "Fujicolor Professional Paper"
  • Dimensions: H. 31 1/2 × W. 23 5/8 in. (80 × 60 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Evelyn A.J. Hall Charitable Trust and Stephanie H. Bernheim Gift, 2007
  • Object Number: 2007.356
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

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