Pelenakeke Brown

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Angela He • Bayan Kiwan • Caroline Sinders • Death, Sex & Money • Kaho Abe • Katia Repina • Lam Thuy Vo • Lauren Lee McCarthy • Mickalene Thomas • Mimi Ọnụọha • Pelanakeke Brown • Tamiko Thiel • Tega Brain • The Cut

Artist Statement

My work explores all the intersections of my identities as a disabled, Oceanic woman living in the diaspora and current immigrant to the United States. My work is inter-disciplinary and includes drawing, writing, storytelling, and movement. My art practice is grounded within the Sāmoan concept of the vā: in-between space and/or spatial relationships.

Vā centers spatial relationships as a way to understand and move in the world. In my art practice, this translates to interrogating relationships, including how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the larger world. This can be between humans but also between structures of power, such as the medical industry and archives. I am fascinated with the in-between spaces in which we spatially relate with each other and how our in-between spaces inform the way we navigate the world.

I am intrigued by the overlaps within my identities, with how indigenous ways of seeing, being and time can and does, overlap with crip time. Finding sites of knowledge which hold both, excites me. The keyboard is one of these crossover sites, it intersects my many identities and art forms, as well as becoming a tool for freedom and creativity of expression. My work straddles the act of refusal by being interdisciplinary, is it a poem, a drawing or a choreographic score? I think it can be all those things. I always wish to expand what can constitute dance and where choreographed movement can be found. So far, I have investigated hair, technology, Samoan tatau (tattoo) and archives via my medical file.

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Pelenakeke Brown is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice spans art, writing, and performance. She is from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and is an Samoan/Pakeha disabled artist. Recently she has returned to Aotearoa after being based in NYC for six years.

She has worked with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Gibney Dance Center and The Goethe Institute. She is a 2020 Eyebeam Artist-in-Residence. She has been selected as one of four choreographers for AXIS Dance Company’s upcoming Choreo-Lab.

She attended the National Academy School of Fine Art, Studio Intensive Program, NY and received a BA in English literature and Pacific Studies, focusing on art and literature by Pasifika artists, from Auckland University, NZ.  

Visit her website here.