Mario Lemafa
December 2012 | Gallery4Culture
Black Diamond, WA
itinerancies
December 6 – 28, 2012
Opening: First Thursday, Dec 6, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The subject of Mario Lemafa’s debut solo exhibition itinerancies is autobiographical, a personal but fictionalized account of the artist’s last decade, realized through filmed performances at homes where he’s lived in Washington State. In selected still images and videos, Lemafa plays the solitary role of a stranger visiting these sites of familiarity. His performance simulates a condensed sense of time and movement and introduces themes of memory, alienation, and spatial flow.
The itinerant lives of military brats, runaways and snowbirds all have resonance with Lemafa’s exploration of how ideas of ‘home’ and the search for ‘sacred space’ apply to modern day nomads. While many people live sedentary lives, stationed in one place, the lives of itinerants are marked by constant movement. Through this work Lemafa asks if it is at all possible for itinerants to identify, while moving, with the ideas of community, home and one’s own personal space. His concerns connect to broader issues of infrastructure, diaspora and forced displacement.
About the Artist
Mario Lemafa is an itinerant from Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington State. His heritage, which influences his work, is Polynesian. While currently residing with his mother and brothers in Black Diamond, Mario commutes to the University of Washington where he studies drama (BA) and photomedia (BFA).