03 Jun 2025
Acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara (Fitiuta, Osaka) continues to build international momentum with her exhibition Paradise Camp. Since March 2025, the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich showcased ‘Darwin in Paradise Camp’ as part of its wider programme, Can the Seas Survive Us?
This new exhibition marks the UK debut of Paradise Camp and features a new video work, Darwin Drag (2025), which is being supported by the Sainsbury Centre, The Whitworth, the British Council, and Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Strategy.
Darwin Drag blends evolutionary science with queer theory and satire. In the short film, Yuki appears as a prosthetically transformed Charles Darwin who confides in renowned Sāmoan drag queen BUCKWEAT, revealing his long-held secret about the queerness he observed in nature. The film also highlights fish species found in the waters around Sāmoa, such as clownfish and parrotfish—known to display traits resonant with the Sāmoan fa‘afafine identity. These marine characters are accompanied by corresponding specimens on loan from the Natural History Museum, creating a rich, multi-sensory experience.
“My work reimagines how we might live in better relationships — with each other, with our histories, and with the natural world. Drawing on my fa‘afafine and Pacific identity, queerness, like nature, is fluid, adaptive, and interconnected. Through this lens, I invite audiences to consider how we might co-exist differently — not through control or dominance, but through care and reciprocity,” says Yuki.
Curated by Natalie King for the Venice Biennale in 2022, Paradise Camp premiered to international acclaim. It later toured to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney (2023) and the Saletoga Sands Resort and Spa in Sāmoa (2024), continuing to engage audiences with its exploration of fa‘afafine identity, decolonisation, and climate justice. In the same year, the National Gallery of Australia acquired Fonofono o le Nuanua: Patches of the Rainbow (after Gauguin), the largest work from the series. In early 2025, the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired a suite of photographic works from Paradise Camp for its permanent collection.
Tania Moore, Head of Exhibitions at the Sainsbury Centre, is confident that Yuki’s work will continue to resonate with audiences.
“Yuki has a unique voice in the art world today and can bring to light hidden histories and under told stories. Through her practice, she urges us to work together to care for each other and the planet,” says Tania.
Following its presentation at the Sainsbury Centre, Darwin in Paradise Camp will travel to The Whitworth, University of Manchester, where it will be on display from 3 October 2025 to 1 March 2026.
Creative New Zealand has maintained a long-standing relationship with Yuki Kihara since as early as 2008, when she was the subject of a solo exhibition presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manahattan New York. The Met then acquired her works for its permanent collection. Since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, with multiple shared projects – a great example of the Global arts priority in action which champions Pacific artists on the world stage.
Makerita Urale, Senior Manager Pacific Arts (Global, NZ, Pacific), acknowledges the long-standing relationship with Yuki.
“As the first Pasifika artist to represent New Zealand at the Venice Biennale 2022, it is fantastic to see Yuki work so hard and continue to build the momentum and opportunities for her significant art and voice around the world.”
“We’ve continued to work closely with Yuki after Venice, especially in supporting her to strengthen her enterprise infrastructure so her artistic vision can be realised with stronger foundations,” says Makerita.
As the global art world continues to reckon with its histories and imagine new futures, Yuki’s Paradise Camp stands as a powerful and necessary conversation, brilliantly blurring boundaries as described by the late curator Jim Vivieaere.
“Yuki's artwork straddles an ambiguous field of binary forces - east/west, original/copy, male/female - and challenges the viewer as being complex and multiple, parody and reality. 'Who am I, what am I, and what are you?' are questions that will never haunt or torment Yuki Kihara. Rather, they provide her with the material for her artwork. The possible answers to these questions are always limited and draw boundaries that Kihara will continue to cross in the expression of her existence.”
Darwin in Paradise Camp by Yuki Kihara is at the Sainsbury Centre (Norwich, UK) until Sunday 3 August 2025.
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