Value Form

Background: ‘Value Form’ builds on my ongoing research into the transcultural notions of value and the corporeal, social, cultural and political movement of Pacific bodies. Informed Claudia Rankine’s work on racial microaggressions in contemporary culture and Nicole R Fleetwood’s Black visuality and embodiment my work addresses the surveillance and control of Black female athletes who are valued in specific contexts and criminalised in others. Contribution: ‘Value Form’ employs methods of motion analysis and biomechanical studies using motion capture data and animation to make visible learned strategies of play that transform players into disembodied vectors bringing their bodies into synchronous alignment and opposition to other bodies. In doing so, this work attempts to draw parallels between the structured geometry of traditional Fijian dance (meke) and the complex constellations of repetitive combative movement performed by young female Pacific Islander basketball players. Through observations of my daughters' experiences as female athletes, I bear witness to the ways in which their bodies are conditioned to exist and move within demarcated spaces, governed by both visible and invisible lines that determine somatic borders and kinematic parameters. Significance: TarraWarra Museum of Art is a leading not-for-profit public art gallery located in Victoria and the Biennial was established in 2006. My work ‘Value Form’ was commissioned by esteemed international curator Dr Léuli Eshraghi for the 9th TarraWarra Biennial and supported with funding from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. The TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili was noted Highly Commended in the 2023 Public Galleries Association of Victoria awards.