This tote bag has been exclusively produced for the Whitworth to accompany Yuki Kihara: Darwin in Paradise Camp.

• Material: 100% Organic Cotton
• Weight: 200gsm
• Size: 38x42cm
• Colour: French Navy

Darwin in Paradise camp is a visually stunning exhibition centring Indigenous, queer worlds by Japanese-Sāmoan artist Yuki Kihara. Kihara delves into art histories and archives to unpick the effects of colonialism on the peoples and ecologies of the Pacific.

Her visually compelling projects centre and empower the Fa’afafine and Fa’atama in Sāmoa, traditional yet marginalised third gender communities to which the artist belongs. In this exhibition, Kihara focuses on two celebrated Western figures – French modernist artist Paul Gauguin and evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) – who each shaped Western understandings of the Pacific.

The quote is featured in the Samoan Queer Lives publication, and is on display in the exhibition.

Quote by Tuilagi Seiuli Ailani Allan Alo Va`ai. From Samoa Queer Lives edited by Dan Taulapapa McMullin and Yuki Kihara, 2018.