Greg Semu’s self-portraits enable him to engage with wider conversations about Pacific history, diaspora and issues of representation. The finely chiselled and intricate lines of his Samoan tatau (tattoo) armour tell of Semu’s personal and cultural narratives. His meticulously composed images, with their rich colour and penchant for theatricality, are also a critique of the historical use of photography to document Pacific people. Semu’s ‘The Battle of the Noble Savage’ series ‘re-enacts’ scenes from fictitious battles, directly referencing French history paintings such as Jacques Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps 1800–01, to reconsider aspects of Pacific history. Semu further developed this interest in subsequent series produced in Taiwan and New Caledonia, where he collaborated with local indigenous people to recreate imagery of key Western events.
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