Greg SEMU
Colonised + Curated
Autodidact. Photographer, independent researcher, visual artist and philanthropist working in the field of community arts and social justice. Provocateur and dramatist.
"Semu's work grapples with Western art history and leads us towards a Maori understanding of the events surrounding their ancestors' migratory voyage to New Zealand"
Tony Ellwood, NGV Director
“Walking into this installation, set against a black and red backdrop, has the visual effect of blunt force trauma…’BLOOD RED’ is not easy viewing, but it is necessary for making visible the suffering.”
Elizabeth Reidy
Art Monthly Australia
“In the scenes Semu staged and photographed . . . . instead of starving wretches, you get tensed, sinewy torsos.
You still get nakedness – but you also get culture in the rope wrist guards of warriors and grass skirts to protect from the rain.
You still get desperation, but you also get a steely determination . . .”
Michael Bleby
Financial Review
“In the age of the selfie, Greg Semu is "pinging" everyone in New Zealand. And in Australia, for that matter…
…at a time when social media and the images we create of ourselves through these media, dominate conversations and influence the very language we use.”
Michael Bleby
Financial Review
"…Although the Pacific is the focus of his work, Semu has become a globalised artist…”
John MacDonald
Sydney Morning Herald
Portraiture is the foundation of his art practice, augmented and scaled up to engage displaced and marginalised communities ethnic or aboriginal with arts focused projects negotiating the horrific legacy suffered upon their ancestors and in the present.
Using the visual medium of photography as the vehicle to aggressively questioning the force fed archival narratives, deaths in custody, injustice and incarceration law and enforcement as factually inspired reconstructions.
Revisiting and reexamining the evidence and residue of historical events and reconfiguring and presenting alternative case files and conclusions for re-digestion.
Fabricated realities designed to provoke dialogue and shift paradigms at both end of the spectrum. Empower the downtrodden disempowered and illicit empathy and compassion from the wealthy overpowered policy and decision makers of government and industry to take action and correct this gross legacy.
The seduction of suffering, the human condition and trials and tribulations are stories secreted in the visual universe of Greg SEMU.
