‘Dresstories’ (2026) by yuki kihara

Yuki Kihara, Dresstories I (O.002304), 2026 Printed calico, crinoline, bustle, mannequin, ed of 2 + 1 AP Approx size: 1600 x 1500 x 1500 mm. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Yuki Kihara, Dresstories II (O.002283), 2026 Printed calico, crinoline, bustle, mannequin, ed of 2 + 1 AP Approx size: 1600 x 1500 x 1500 mm. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Yuki Kihara, Dresstories III (O.002295), 2026 Printed calico, crinoline, bustle, mannequin, ed of 2 + 1 AP Approx size: 1600 x 1500 x 1500 mm. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Yuki Kihara, Dresstories IV (O.002288), 2026 Printed calico, crinoline, bustle, mannequin, ed of 2 +1 AP Approx size: 1600 x 1500 x 1500 mm. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Yuki Kihara, Dresstories V (O.002280), 2026 Printed calico, crinoline, bustle, mannequin, ed of 2 + 1 AP Approx size: 1600 x 1500 x 1500 mm. Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Artist Statement by yuki kihara

‘Dresstories’ emerged from my personal encounter with nude photographs of Sāmoan women taken by New Zealand colonial photographer Thomas Andrew (1855–1939), during his time in Sāmoa from 1891 until his death in 1939. These images, enlarged and transformed into life-size Victorian mourning dresses inspired by the same dress worn by my fictitious character of Salome, create a striking tension between exposed skin and the modesty of mourning attire. This tension became my lens to examine the colonial gaze, revealing its dual nature of desire and discipline, spectacle and silence, visibility and erasure.

By re-staging these photographs as garments presented as sculpture, the work shifts the act of looking from passive consumption to a contested space of memory, agency, and refusal. My research for this series began in 2012 at the American Museum of Natural History in Manahatta New York, where I first encountered the nude studies of Sāmoan women—preserved under the authority of science. Over two decades, I traced Andrew’s photographs held in the archives situated across Sāmoa, Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, uncovering their global circulation through periodicals and postcards.

While Andrew documented pivotal events in Sāmoa such as the Mau movement and the Mt Matavanu eruption, his studio portraits often depicted Sāmoans as ‘noble savages,’ reducing their complex lives to consumable stereotypes. ‘Dresstories’ addresses what I understand as ‘ethno-porn,’ a term credited to artist Coco Fusco: the fetishized packaging of cultural difference for a voyeuristic gaze, often justified through ethnography, documentary, tourism, or humanitarianism. Here, ‘porn’ signifies images designed for compulsive looking, structured by power imbalances that silence the subjects.

The title of each work in Dresstories corresponds to the registration number of the photographs at Te papa depicted on the dress's surface. This choice underscores how such numbers reduce the photographs to cataloged artifacts, emphasizing physical tracking while neglecting their deeper, intangible significance. By using these numbers as titles, the work subverts the museum system, creating ambiguity between the title and the actual registration number. This challenges the system's dependence on rigid categorization and invites a critique of its limitations.

What are the stories behind these women? By transforming these photographs into mourning dresses, the work enacts a dual purpose: mourning the violence of the colonial archive and re-clothing the women within a framework of visual sovereignty. The dress, as both skin and shield, interrogates who is allowed to look, who is asked to reveal, and who holds the power to decide. ‘Dresstories’ is Salome’s ritual of mourning and repair, suturing image to garment and archive to body, urging viewers to confront the intimacy of colonial looking and imagine alternative ways of seeing, remembering, and being seen.

Exhibition Dates

‘Dresstories’ by Yuki Kihara
Aotearoa Art Fair
Aotearoa New Zealand
30 April – 3 May 2026
https://artfair.co.nz

‘Salome: An Angel of History’
New Zealand Portraiture Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata
Aotearoa New Zealand
19 February – 10 May 2026
https://nzportraitgallery.org.nz