On a special night created for the festival, the trio present a musical interpretation to artist Lisa Reihana’s In Pursuit of Venus [Infected].
The point of departure of Lisa Reihana’s acclaimed video projection, In Pursuit of Venus [Infected], is the famed voyages of Captain James Cook, who 250 years ago was the first European to reach distant areas of the southern hemisphere and have contact with the people who lived there. Its title suggests a quest, while referring to Cook’s orders from the Admiralty: to record the transit of Venus across the sun and also to expand England’s knowledge of the world and sphere of influence. (The word infected suggests another outcome of his mission – the introduction of European diseases to the region). Reihana breathes a new life and meaning into this dramatic encounter.
In the show, the trio plays with Reihana’s captivating video and offer a musical commentary on questions of social inequity, relationships between peoples, and native autonomy.
