Bio | Christopher Ulutupu

Born Wellington 1988

Lives and works in Wellington

“Christopher Ulutupu’s video/performance art practice explores ongoing themes around landscape, photography, and the construction of colonial narratives. Responding to early 1900’s landscape photography and ‘postcard’ tourism, his earlier work has looked at depictions of Pacific brown people, disseminated throughout the western world: images of Pacific people sitting under coconut trees made available for European consumption. His practice seeks to re-contextualise these stereotypes and re-imagine them through video and performance, offering new ways of exploring the effects of colonisation and diaspora.”
Heather Galbraith, 2018

Recent exhibitions include Lelia and Fitu (seven) as part of SCAPE Public Art 2018, Romantic Picturesque at the Hobiennale (Hobart, Tasmania 2017) and play_station gallery 2018, and Into The Arms Of My Coloniser, as part of The Tomorrow People, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington 2017.

Education

Master Of Fine Arts (Distinction), Massey University, Wellington, 2016

Bachelor Of Performance Design, Massey University and Toi Whakaari Wellington

Selected exhibitions

2021

ATTENTION TOURIST, Cement Fondu, Sydney, Australia

A Room in Time Screening: The Romantic Picturesque, Christchurch Art Gallery

2020

Into The Open, New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Wellington

Into the Arms of my Coloniser, Rear Window Project, Dunedin Public Art Gallery

The Sound of Seeing, The Pyramid Club, Wellington

2019

Be Happy | Be Still, Jhana Millers, Wellington

Lelia, Our Sea of Islands, Nu Space, Chengdu, China

More than all the oceans between us, Art Space, Sydney

Lelia, The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany

Lelia, Auckland Live Digital Stage, Aotea Square, Auckland

Manaia Folinga, Auckland Art Fair, Jhana Millers

Dreaming of Lulu, Enjoy Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand

2018

Lelia and Fitu (Seven), SCAPE Public Art Season 2018, Christchurch, New Zealand

Tulisi, Australian National University Gallery, Canberra, Australia

Into The Arms Of My Coloniser (online), Recess, Australia

The Romantic Picturesque, play_station gallery, Wellington

2017

The Romantic Picturesque, Hobiennale, Tasmania, Australia

OFFSTAGE 8, Artspace Gallery, Auckland

Get The Picture, Blakdot Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Cold Islanders, Waikato Museum, Hamilton

Tomorrow People, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington

Ladies, Circuit Mason’s Screen Project, Wellington

2016

National Contemporary Art Award Exhibition, Waikato Museum, Hamilton

Window Exhibition Space Siapo Cinema: Nga Taonga Sound & Vision, Wellington

Awards

National Contemporary Art Award Nominee, 2016

MOA Award Nominee for Best Art Direction, 2011

Qantas film awards - Best Technical Team For a Short Film, 2009

Reviews/essays

Issuu, June 2018, Christopher Ulutupu

Eye Contact, In Whose Eyes? Jessica Hubbard, 2018

The Unmissables: Four Exhibitions to see in February, Pantograph Punch, 2018

Christopher Ulutupu: The Romantic Picturesque Hobeinnale 2017, Thomas Capogreco, Fine Print Magazine

Hobiennale: Surface World and the Romantic Picturesque, Art and Australia, Miriam McGarry, 2017