Chantal Fraser: The Ascended

Sāmoan-Australian artist Chantal Fraser’s multimedia practice has garnered significant acclaim within Australian contemporary art and reflects the complexity of lived experiences for diasporic Sāmoan and Pasifika communities. Exploring ritual, adornment and gestures of exchange, Fraser’s works make use of a vast array of artistic, musical and spiritual sources, from global pop culture to folk and customary practices.

The Ascended crystallises Fraser’s exploration of power and class through her anti-colonial and anti-capitalist strategies, developing a theory that links ornamentation, personal protective devices and protest aesthetics as means to subvert and liberate identities.