Armfuls of Eclectic Pieces: Poetic-Photographic Essay

• Main Author: Flora Aurima Devatine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: James Cook University 2020-08-01
• Series: eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics
• Subjects: poem; ma’ohi; french polynesia; fragmentation; creative recycling
• Online Access: https://journals.jcu.edu.au/etropic/article/view/3730/pdf

As a writer and poet, I am particularly interested in language(s), in words in Tahitian and in French. Since 2016, I have explored themes of survival, duration, continuity, and transmission through poetry and artworks made of materials evoking cracks, fractures, disruption, remains, remnants, separation, and loss. In this poetic-photographic essay, I reflect on my creative process and show how Tahitian concepts, such as HU’A, HU’AHU’A, HI’O, HI’OHI’O, GLASS, MIRROR, and ITE, SIGHT, KNOWLEDGE, WITNESS have inspired my artworks. I explore how the elements I collected and transformed are both a mirror of society and an invitation to create new images and ideas. I also highlight the importance of – establishing a dialogue between French and – Tahitian and other Indigenous languages for conceptualising the arts and creativity.