Evolving patterns of identity: a visual response to observations of Cook Islands' women and their adornment

Abstract

This multimedia visual arts project investigates, from a personal perspective, changes in the context of Cook Islands’ women’s adornment. In a modern world, changes in adornment have become disconnected from cultural traditions and so this study explores how over time evolving patterns of adornment are employed by women to identify their place in society. Observations have been drawn from the developing relationship between the researcher and the women in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands’ community where this project took place. These observations are documented explored and articulated primarily through the medium of photography, and principally by way of the snapshot and the portrait. This examination of Cook Islands’ women and their adornment from traditional adornment to the contemporary influences of modern day fashion has further been explored through a visual response to the relationships between the women and the layers of their adornment. This visual arts project is compromised of an exegesis with a value of 20% and a practical component of 80%.