The Dark Current

Using a combination of videogame software and carefully crafted live-action scenes, Tiatia creates a hypnotic world where boundaries blur and perceptions shift. The work captures the dark and chaotic feeling of the current moment while unravelling the artist's connection to her matrilineage and Sāmoan culture. Spanning three years and filmed in four countries, The Dark Current is Tiatia’s most ambitious project to date. For the first time, she lays bare her own image-making through unscripted scenes, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The resulting work is a dream-like visual poem that skims the beautiful yet murky surface of Pacific myth-making to arrive at a hopeful vision for the future.