Ocean Island… Mine! by Latai Taumoepeau
“What remains in the aftershocks of empire? […] Such effects reside in the corroded hollows of landscapes […]. The question is pointed: How do imperial formations persist in their material debris, in ruined landscapes and through the social ruination of people’s lives?” – Ann Stoler cited in Katerina Teaiwa, 2015.
A live performance by Latai Taumoepeau where she relocates a 500kg block of ice with a shovel and a steady walk from point A to point B. Back and forth, she works the open-cut mines of the past into the future of climate change; excavating the solid white rock into invisibility.
This work belongs to a genealogy of durational performance reflections from Taumoepeau’s ‘Stitching (up) the Sea’ suite.
Performed as part of AusDance Australian Dance Week.
