John Hurrell – 9 July, 2026

Presented on a row of five identical sewn-onto kimonos, this wildly seductive and extraordinarily inventive five-part fabric installation’ by Yuki Kihara is an exciting addition to the Gallery collection as part of the current Pacific Oceania show. Rich in its overt multiple allusions (such as clothing design and Japanese woodcuts) this engrossing, dynamic ensemble sits on its downstairs wall and bowls over lucky AAG visitors.

The interesting thing is that it doesn’t scream ‘Pacifica.’ Even though it revels in appropriation, and teases through its busy decorative surface imagery that plays off against the garment shapes and their edges.

It exudes Orientalism and probably unintentionally hints of Trusttum as an art-historical precursor with its suspended materiality, yet is unabashedly and deliciously a ‘Song about Samoa’ with its swirling narratives of vibrating texture-loaded shapes that overshadow body-protecting function.

It also delights in excess, celebrating visual pleasure via showing and possible ‘performative’ wearing. To this end it embraces the movement of the garment’s wearer as well as when placed on a stand or hanger for stationary display. Blurry motion is perhaps just important as stillness. Contemplated images in both stasis and mentally envisaged activation.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email