Darcell Apelu

Saw (2011)

36 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"This work was created in 2011 and was a starting point of my moving image and performance practice. I wanted to combine my parallel worlds, one of my non-existent Polynesian culture and my involvement in the sport of woodchopping. I have been competing in woodchopping since I was 14. I was in a place were I couldn’t ignore these separate parts of my life, I hope that this work opens up others to embrace and accept difference. I wore a raffia costume that I had made the same way as Polynesian skirts, the movements within the moving image are of the techniques used to chop and saw a block of wood in competitive woodchopping."

Artist's statement

Other works by Darcell Apelu

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practice
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which reflect our unique, contemporary
South Pacific context.