Christopher Ulutupu

Christopher Ulutupu is a contemporary artist of Samoan, Niuean and German descent. Born in 1987, he currently lives and works in Whakatū Nelson.

Ulutupu uses the conventions of cinematic storytelling to explore the relationship between landscape, identity and representation. Working primarily with video, he employs a cast drawn almost entirely from his friends and family, who sing, dance and perform for the camera. Pop-cultural references abound, from girl-group renditions of Britney Spears songs to reimagined fashion editorials and cinematic tableaux. Within these familiar visual languages, however, Pacific bodies take centre stage. Ulutupu is as interested in challenging inherited modes of representation as he is in celebrating the communities closest to him. In his works, performers are often family members and collaborators: a singer may be his sister, a keyboardist his partner, or a bride his mother.

Early in his career, Ulutupu drew inspiration from postcard imagery of Pacific Island nations produced for European audiences in the early twentieth century.