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Complex and vast in scale, artist Lisa Reihana's 25-metre wide by four-metre high panoramic video and sound work, in Pursuit of Venus [infected], immerses visitors in the sights and sounds of the Pacific.

New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana's Emissaries debuts at the 2017 Venice Biennale this weekend. As she prepared for the world's largest art fair,  she talked to CHARLIE GATES about adapting and renaming her hit artwork.

It took six years to create before its debut in Auckland in 2015, but New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana only feels like her epic video artwork will be complete when it opens up to the public in the New Zealand Pavilion at the world's largest art fair from May 14 (NZ Time).

Reihana has expanded and revamped her artwork about Pacific cultures meeting European explorers to include Aboriginal stories for this year's Venice Biennale.

She was selected in October 2015 to represent New Zealand at the world's largest art fair with a work that first debuted at the Auckland Art Gallery in May 2015.

Pursuit of Venus [infected] was a critical and popular hit, becoming the most popular solo show by a Kiwi artist at the gallery since 1997, with 49,000 visitors.

Bevan Read

Artist Lisa Reihana is New Zealand's representative at this year's Venice Biennale.

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The large video artwork is an animated adaptation of 19th century scenic wallpaper depicting encounters between Europeans and indigenous Pacific cultures. Actors bring to life encounters between Polynesians and European explorers like Captain Cook, subverting and questioning the romanticised version of events in the original wallpaper design.

Reihana extended the work for Venice to include Aboriginal experiences, filming new segments with performers in Australia last August. She said the inclusion of Aboriginal stories would complete the work.

"I originally wanted First Australians to be in the work, but that was very hard from a funding perspective. 

"It's really important for me to give that voice to Aboriginal people. ... That will for me be a really nice completion. It feels like a completion of thinking through those ideas."

The five new Aboriginal scenes being shot for Venice have been integrated into the 32-minute video artwork. Not wanting to extend the length of the work, she said she had to find a way of fitting them in.

Lisa Reihana's original work In Pursuit of Venus [Infected] attracted large crowds to the Auckland Art Gallery in 2015.

"At 32 minutes long, it worked really well. If you have a lunchtime, you could see it twice in a lunchtime. People could put that time aside. If it ain't broke don't fix it."

The work has been renamed Emissaries and also includes new photographic portraits of historic figures. 

"I really wanted to signify a shift from what we did at the Auckland Art Gallery. It means Venice is separate and has its own distinct name and moment and presentation. It's a little extension of the work."

She wanted to bring to life Aboriginal stories like a cave painting by the Dharawal people near Campbelltown in New South Wales. The painting depicts a bull that escaped from one of the early settler ships and went on to sire a wild herd in the bush.

She also wanted to include the story of Cooma, a Gweagal warrior who encountered Europeans in Botany Bay and got a musket hole in his shield. The shield is in the collection of the British Museum, with some First Australians campaigning for its return.

Reihana admitted she sometimes felt daunted by the challenge of preparing a Venice Biennale show.

"There is such a focus on Venice and it is a really big and difficult place to go into. It is like the art Olympics, but they get four years and we only get two.

"It's quite confronting. Sometimes I have some very sleepless nights.

"It's frightening. It's good to feel scared and then have to dive in and do it."

Lisa Reihana's Emissaries is on display at the Venice Biennale from May 14 to November 27.  

 - Stuff