Tahiri

Tevaite Rey’s whole being, her philosophy of life, and all the feelings she has experienced in her life lead her to share her perspectives on contemporary Polynesia through her artworks. Her aim is to exist with the names and lands she has inherited as a child of the fenua, and to allow her cultural heritage to be known in her homeland and abroad. The poem was written for this special issue on ‘Environmental Artistic Practices and Indigeneity’. The two artworks which illustrate the poem were commissioned for an exhibition that was held at the University of Western Brittany in Brest, France, in 2019. Tevaite Rey addresses the theme of pollution with the fan (tahiri), one of Polynesia’s most iconic objects, by slightly modifying the materials and dimensions of this emblem of prestige. She reduces for example its thickness to illustrate the great pressure exerted by humans on natural resources. This creative appropriation encourages viewers to think about the different sources of pollution and their global impact.