Lorene Taurerewa: Sleight of Hand

Finding inspiration in the stories of her Samoan, Chinese and European ancestors, Lorene Taurerewa weaves her personal and historical family narrative into her large-scale drawings.

In this new series of figurative, charcoal works, Sleight of Hand, begun during her recent residencies in New York and Seoul, Taurerewa focuses on stories from her mother's childhood.

Combining an intense and powerful presence with a subtle, emotional complexity, the monumental drawings present themselves as alternative psychological worlds. Dressed in Victorian dresses, the imposing, life-size figures that confront the viewer seem caught between childhood and adulthood - uncertain, apprehensive and vulnerable. Solitary figures, they interact with a variety of exotic pets and toys. In some of the drawings mysterious, spirit-like figures evoke the presence of family ancestors.

By contrast, her small works on paper and canvas are delicate and intuitive - visual fragments of narrative stories.

Taurerewa's drawing technique has been influenced by her study of traditional Chinese painting. She consciously sets up an ambiguous space with subtle shifts of scale and spatial depth, contrasting the inky charcoal marks with empty spaces.