Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Dan Taulapapa McMullin (May 23, 1953 – Present) is an American Samoan artist, known for his poetry, visual art and film. His major themes are his indigenous Samoan heritage and his fa'afafine gender identity. McMullin has been creating literary and artistic works for over 35 years, and has received numerous awards, fellowships, and grants.[1] He works in a variety of literary styles and visual art modes. In his adult life, he has spent time in Los Angeles (where he worked for many years), and now live with his partner in Laguna California, and Hudson, New York.[1][2]

The interviewer Daniel Michael Satele writes of McMullin:

"While Dan works with various forms, his creative output nonetheless comprises a project that pursues the same set of interests quite relentlessly. This project, I believe, is relevant not only to viewers from his 'home' communities: Samoan and queer. Cunningly, even cuttingly, tracing the interstices between western and Samoan concepts and constructs of selfhood, Dan's art helps us understand what is at stake in the era of globalization, where ancestral and subcultural communities are geographically dispersed: and we are all, ever-increasingly, let to perform the role of 'other' for our neighbors."[3]

Childhood and education

McMullin was born in Japan into a military family, and spent his toddler years in Germany, before moving to American Samoa as a young child where he was raised on Tutuila Island in the villages of Maleola and Leone.[2][3][4] He is of Samoan and Jewish-Irish descent. His childhood home on Samoa has been described as "a traditional Samoan fale roundhouse with coral stone flooring and sugarcane thatching, brought up making indigenous siapo barkcloth painting by his great-grandmother Fa'asapa."[2] He has his MFA from Claremont Graduate University and a BA from University of California, Irvine. He spent much of his professional career in television, film, and theater, before leaving those industries to focus on poetry and his own art. He has taught both poetry and painting at the University of the South Pacific, for the California Arts Council, for the American Samoa Arts Council and the American Samoan Humanities Council.[2]

Gender and heritage

The prominence of McMullin's indiginous heritgage and queer identity in his artistic work cannot be overstated. These have been major influences since his early career. McMullin often cites these topics not only as areas of exploration for his art, but also as the major inspiration. In an interview in 2013 when asked which non-artist most influences his work, he replied: "My old man, my boyfriend, usually in bed after yadda yadda, looking out the windows at the hills of Laguna, California where we are. It's moments like that I'm back in Samoa again, my soul is; and ideas come easily, like mangoes hitting a tin roof in the rain."[3]

McMullin identifies himself as fa'afafine, a Samoan third gender for which there is no perfect English translation, but which is often described as a man who lives as a woman.[5] McMullin generally uses male pronouns, including on his own website.[1] Describing fa'afafine in an artist statement introducing his poetry and photography for the USC Cinema journal Spectator, McMullin writes:

"The standard practice among fa'afafine (MTF) and fa'afatama (FTM) is that one's sexual partners are "straight": fa'afafine doe not see ourselves as women, but also do not identify as gay men. It is sometimes said that a fa'afafine is a relatively new role in Samoan society beginning with the advent of foreign influence, however the role of fa'afafine in prevalent throughout Polynesia and is indicated by indigenous words such as fakafafine in Tonga, and mahu in eastern Polynesia. These indigenous words are without foreign etymology."[6]

McMullin, in another statement accompanying his work in June 2016, says "Often, not always, but often my work looks at sexuality and the body. The body as memory, a key to our historical presences, to my own story and my oratory. There is a great cleft and an eternal return to the past, but the past is only a way to continue the journey into the future. A looking back as a way of setting the sale toward whatever my own indigenous futurism defines."[7]

In addition to artistic and activist work, McMullin has also written personal narratives reflecting on both his gender and indigenous identity. Of particular note is an expansive essay written for the Amerasia Journal in 2011, which explores what it means to be Fa'afafine both from a personal and historical context.[8] In an essay for The Poetry Foundation blog, McMullin says "Identity is not something we claim, it is something that claims us."[4]

Creative works

Writing

McMullin's poetry and essays have been widely published, especially in anthologies focused on LGBTQ or Pacific Island indigenous literature. McMullin's first full-length poetry collection, Coconut Milk (2013) was named in the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow top-ten overall category.[9] The Native American poet Qwo-Li Driscoll said of this collection "He [McMullin] balances humor, rage, and the erotic through his words." Brandy Nalani McDougall, another Native writer says of the work, "McMullin's Coconut Milk is a brilliant collection of both narrative and avant-garde poems descended from traditional storytelling that gives voice to Samoan fa'afafine culture as it continues to flourish in Samoa in the colonial diaspora."[10] The publisher says of the book:

"McMullin seamlessly flows between exposing the ironies of Tiki kitsch-inspired cultural appropriation and intimate snapshots of Samoan people and place. In doing so, he disrupts popular notions of a beautiful Polynesia available for the taking, and carves out new avenues of meaning for Pacific Islanders of Oceania. Throughout the collection, McMullin illustrates various manifestations of geopolitical, cultural, linguistic, and sexual colonialism. His work illuminates the ongoing resistance to colonialism and the remarkable resilience of Pacific Islanders and queer-identified people."[11]

Much of Coconut Milk read nearly biographically, such as the poem "Sa Moana Poem Number Two" which opens:

"When Dad went to the American War in Vietnam
Mom took us home for our first time to the Samoa Islands on Pan Am Airlines
Me and my brothers in our JFK suits and crewcuts
Mom and my sister in Lady Jackie gloves and dresses"[12]

Of McMullin's more experimental poetry, such as his poetry published in Poetry Magazine in 2016, he often blends the boundaries between poetry, visual poetry, and visual art.[11][13] The language in his poems often takes quick turns and have a sense of controlled stream of consciousness. They are rich in both visual and other concrete details, such as these lines from a poem called "The Doors of the Sea":

"the blood red dust of life
as my brother's face
disappeared beneath us
beneath the ship which carried us and the goddess
to where we do no know
leaving the war of my grandfather
the smell of smoke following us."[14]

Before the publication of Coconut Milk, McMullin has already been widely published, and his solo collections included a poetry chapbook, A Drag Queen Named Pipi (2004) from Tinfish Press and a children's book My Name is Laloifi (2005).[1]

Visual art

McMullin began making visual art around 2004 while living in Apia Samoa. McMullin describes the origins of his work as an 'ironic take on romantic island painting', but soon turned towards themes of connection to his great grandmother and his own indigenous identity. Around 2011 or slightly earlier, he began to explore the concept of the cultural appropriation of Samoan art and culture, or Tiki Kitsch as it is sometimes called. Much of his work since that time has been influenced by this shift.[15] In a 2012 artist statement McMullin writes:

"...looking at kitsch art has made me question all my assumptions about the Samoan artistic practice, and to search for alternative meaning in our conceptions of the traditional, realizing that my work relied on appropriated meanings and visual misinterpretations or a dumbing down of meaning. So i began making abstract paintings influenced by Samoan siapo and weaving. As well as the intellectual lives of the many indigenous and women and fa'afafine/whakawahine artists who inspired me."[15]

In addition to painting, McMullin also does a significant amount of work in sculpture, collage, installation and photography. McMullin's work has been featured in over a dozen solo exhibits - including most notably installations at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (2016) and at the De Young Museum in San Francisco (2010) - and in over 50 group exhibitions across the United States.[1]

When asked about the materials he uses in a 2010 interview as artist in residence at de Young, McMullin response gives some insight not only into the physical make up of his works, but also in how the many modes in which he works organically influence each other:

"In the past year or so, I've been working in various media for sculptures and installations, including plaster, red earth, plant fibers, altered furniture, oil paint, resin, and cloth. The sculptures in turn are influencing my paintings, which was once almost all realistic in its approach, but through the influence of my sculpture, I'm now incorporating abstract shapes."[16]

Film

Of McMullin's three short films Sinaela has received the most acclaim, and has been shown at film festivals internationally including Australia and New Zealand.[1] It was filmed on a hand held camera in American Samoa, and draws on the fairy tale Cinderella as well as a Samoan proverbial tale (a fa'agogo). Since Sinaela, McMullin also made the films ULA: The Garland which was shown in 2011 in New Zealand at the Pacific Art Summit as a work in progress,[17] and 100 Tikis, a short film on the theme of cultural appropriation.

List of recent and notable exhibitions, publications, awards and honors

Source[1]

Writing (fiction, poetry, and essays)

Art exhibitions

Film

Awards and honors

Residencies, fellowships and grants

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Dan Taulapapa McMullin". www.taulapapa.com. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "ADDLEDS Performance". Vimeo. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  3. 1 2 3 "Why Must I Wait For Night? - The Restless Diaspora of Dan Taulapapa McMullin". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
  4. 1 2 Foundation, Poetry. "Over My Queer Samoan Body". Harriet: The Blog. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  5. ↑ Tan, Yvette. "Miss Fa'afafine: Behind Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant". bbc.com. BBC. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Dan Taulapapa McMullin. Peter Britos (ed.) "Artist Note". Oceania in the Age of Global Media Special issue of Spectator p. 113. USC Cinema, Spring 2003. Accessed online Oct 13 2016 at http://cinema.usc.edu/assets/059/11479.pdf
  7. ↑ "Charlton Kupa'a Hee and Dan Taulapapa McMullin - Art in Hawaii". cargocollective.com. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  8. ↑ McMullin, Dan Taulapapa. Fa'afafine Notes: On Tagaloa, Jesus, and Nafanua. Amerasia Journal 37:3 (2011). Accessed online Oct 11 2016 at https://doctorkb.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/faafafine-notes-dan-taulapapa-mcmullin.pdf
  9. ↑ "Final Bibliographies – Over the Rainbow Books". www.glbtrt.ala.org. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  10. 1 2 "Coconut Milk". www.uapress.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  11. 1 2 "Coconut Milk". Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  12. ↑ Taulapapa McMullin, Dan (2013). Coconut Milk. Arizona: University of Arizona Press. pp. from "Sa Moana Poem Number Two". ISBN 978-0-8165-3052-6.
  13. ↑ "Alaska". Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  14. ↑ "The Doors of the Sea". Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  15. 1 2 Pacific Arts Association. Featured Artist: Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Tufuga Valiata, Notes on Painting. PAA Website. Accessed Oct 11 2016 http://www.pacificarts.org/Blog_dan_mcmullin
  16. ↑ "An interview with Dan Taulapapa McMullin, October Artist-in-Residence". FAMSF. 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  17. ↑ "Manukau Institute of Technology | 2011 SOUTH AUCKLAND PACIFIC ARTS SUMMIT". 2011pacificartssummit.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  18. ↑ "University of Hawaii Press - Huihui: Navigating Art and Literature in the Pacific". www.uhawaiipress.com. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  19. ↑ "Dan Taulapapa McMullin - Academia.edu". independent.academia.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-14.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.