Personal explorations of memory, history, and identity through life-size material sculptures

Five full-size mannequins dressed in Victorian mourning dress dot the floor of the gallery. Look closer and you see they are clothed sculptures, the dresses featuring prints of nude photographs of Sāmoan women taken by colonial photographer Thomas Andrew (1855–1939). They are Yuki Kihara’s, a Japanese-Sāmoan conceptual artist who represented New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, latest work Dresstories inspired by the dress of the fictitious Salome, a character featured in her earlier work. Milford GalleriesYuki Kihara's "Dressstories" at Milford Gallery Dunedin. Photo: Milford Gallery They stand surrounded by photographs of the sculptures and her other work Aotea’ula, an ongoing photographic series featuring ʻula, Sāmoan garlands, made from natural materials native to Aotearoa. For Kihara both works are personal explorations of memory, history and identity through material-sculptural storytelling. Aotea’ula uses natural materials to honour indentured labourers and navigate Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial and Pasifika histories, while Dresstories recontextualises Sāmoan photographic archives into sculpture to critique the colonial gaze and reframe visibility, agency and memory. Yet they are linked through the use of ritualised objects — ʻula and dresses — and “re-inscriptions” of archival imagery. “Ritualised objects become powerful conduits for storytelling, embodying cultural narratives and anchoring them in tangible forms. They connect past and present, enabling stories to be shared, remembered and reinterpreted across generations, inviting reflection on identity and history and fostering a deeper understanding of cultural heritage.” suppliedConceptual artist Yuki Kihara. Photo: Supplied For Kihara the concept of Dressstories began with Salome’s Victorian mourning dress. Over time it has helped her explore how clothing can sit at the crossroads of history, identity and power. “Showing how attire can both enforce systems and be used to subvert them.” Her research for the current series began in 2012 at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York, where she first encountered the nude studies of Sāmoan women. Over two decades, she has traced Andrew’s photographs held in the archives situated across Sāmoa, New Zealand, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, uncovering their global circulation through periodicals and postcards. “Dresstories addresses what I understand as “ethno-porn,” a term credited to artist Coco Fusco: the fetishised packaging of cultural difference for a voyeuristic gaze, often justified through ethnography, documentary, tourism or humanitarianism.” Milford GalleriesYuki Kihara’s "Dresstories I (O.002304) (2026) Back" at Milford Gallery. Photo: Milford Gallery Kihara says by turning the images into dresses, the work “grieves the harm of the colonial archive while dressing the women in a kind of visual sovereignty”. “Each dress in the series acts as both skin and shield, asking questions about who gets to look, who is forced to reveal, and who holds the power to decide. Dresstories became a ritual of mourning and healing, weaving together images, garments and archives to challenge the colonial gaze and imagine new ways of seeing, remembering and being seen.” The works have been created out of calico, selected as the original photographs are sepia-toned, enabling a higher resolution image to be used. She and her team used AI to scale the A5 photographs up to a life-sized print. “While this might seem straightforward, every time we employed AI, it often produced results that deviated from the prompt instructions.” So they learned firsthand that while AI can be a powerful tool for scaling images, it requires careful oversight and adjustment to achieve the desired outcomes, she says. “It’s crucial to fine-tune the AI’s parameters and continually assess the results to ensure they align with my artistic vision. It’s important to balance technological innovation with human expertise.” Milford GalleriesYuki Kihara’s "Dresstories II (O.002283) (2026) Front" at Milford Gallery. Photo: Milford Gallery The mannequins on which the dresses sit have been modelled on Kihara’s body. Kihara also named each work with a number corresponding to the registration number of the photographs at Te Papa depicted on the dresses. “This choice underscores how such numbers reduce the photographs to catalogued artifacts, emphasising physical tracking while neglecting their deeper, intangible significance.” So by using these numbers as titles, the work subverts the museum system, creating ambiguity between the title and the actual registration number, she says. “This challenges the system’s dependence on rigid categorisation and invites a critique of its limitations.” In Aotea’ula, a combination of the words Aotearoa and ‘ula, numbers also matter. Milford GalleriesYuki Kihara’s "Aotea’ula Tu (Harakeke) (2021-22)". Photo: Milford Gallery The works tell the story of 27 men from Sandwich Island (Efate) in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) who arrived in Waitematā Harbour on a clipper schooner Lulu in 1870, not realising they were brought to Aotearoa as indentured labourers. These men were to work in flax mills around Auckland. After working for three years, the men were paid only ten pounds and received a few metal goods and blankets. Kihara has created 27 ‘ula — a symbolic gesture of love and respect gifted to people as a way to create meaningful relationships — made from natural materials native to Aotearoa. Milford GalleriesYuki Kihara’s "Aotea'ula Seventin (Kahuku - Danaus Plexippus) (2015)" at Milford Gallery. Photo: Milford Gallery Each one is dedicated to the memory of the labourers, the first seasonal workers brought to New Zealand. The title of each work refers to the Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu) translation of the numbers one through 27. “These numbers serve as a place holder until the names of the indentured labourers are officially recovered. Through this gesture, Aoteaʻula series hopes to restore the manaakitanga [love and compassion] for the indentured labourers with ‘ula from Aotearoa.” To see: YUKI KIHARA, Dresstories and Aotea’ula Milford Gallery, Dunedin, until August 31; Artist talk August 20, 5.30pm.