Te Tīnana

Liam’s mahi documents the queer experience through both a personal lens and a community-based lens, with work ranging from shooting queer events to personal based endeavours, as a way of decolonising their lens to help the viewer decolonise the way they view the world. Their work is centred around the experience of queer people of colour, and how they move and navigate the world. They aim to invoke a sense of community through the work they produce.

TE TINANA, is an Exploration of the body through self portraiture, Liam says: 

“As a plus size Takatāpui Māori, I never saw my body represented literally anywhere. When I moved in with my parents after taking a break from studying, I decided to go into the studio space I had at the time and produce a body of work centred around my own body and finding comfort in all the cracks and crevices that I hide on a daily basis. 

The work itself within the context of Whitings o Te Rā brings a level of visibility to the light that a lot of our people need to see. We were created so perfectly as Takatāpui, and our bodies are sacred. When I visualise this body work, I see it sitting on the horizon of a new day that is about to be brighter and bigger than ever because of our existence and visibility as a community.”

IG: liiiambrown