Mr. Key Weight Araya Komai, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 28.5″ x 26″Meke ni Tolu A Contemporary Fijian Tribal Print, 2022 Mixed media on paper 23” X 33” (Primary) / 16” X 23” (Secondary)The Styx Runs West Acrylic and oil on canvas 2021The Seed of the Vuga Tree Inspired by Fijian Masi, 2020 Acrylic on CanvasMycelium [Non-Binary Bodies ] 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 6 X 3.5 feetTwo Souls [Non-Binary Bodies ] 2019 Acrylic on Canvas 36 X 50 inches This piece, the first in my 2019 series, asks: What space do non-binary and queer bodies occupy within Islander communities? The history is not one of absence, but of colonial erasure. Western society has since paved paths for queer visibility, paths of legal rights and medical frameworks. But are these the only roads? This series questions whether we should adopt these foreign maps or look to our own ancestral traditions to reclaim a space that was always ours. The body itself becomes the canvas for this conflict and reclamation.
araya komai 