Pacific Starmap

Michel Tuffery has become the first Polynesian artist to have a painting bought by the British Museum. “Cookie in the Cook Islands” illustrates factual and imagined stories of Captain James Cook’s explorations in the Pacific. The painting shows Captain Cook with Polynesian features and flowers in his hair and gives a Polynesian perspective on Cook and his voyages of exploration. Tuffery, 43, is of Samoan, Tahitian and Rarotongan descent, and says he used Cook’s name as if he was a personal friend. “Cookie is [also] a throwaway nickname for a Cook Islander.” The painting was bought last month for an undisclosed sum. British Museum curator Natasha McKinney said “[it] is an attractive, accessible and powerful representation of Captain James Cook, as a British audience will never have seen him before.” Tuffery is currently an artist-in-residence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“I take 30 years of living as part of her [Manukau] and I channel that into images that subvert convention, challenge media stereotypes and become the tools for my truth, my honesty,” says New Zealand-born, South Auckland-raised Samoan photographer-brotographer, Raymond Sagapolutele. The 38-year-old from Manurewa says he started off taking cliched landscape shots but realised very quickly that every other photographer seemed also to be doing that. So he looked for subjects that would distance his work from everyone else’s. “Manukau serves as my focal point” he says, “as she not only offers a broad canvas but she is so many different things to so many different people but more specifically she gives me the scope to reveal something other than what you may term as ‘your view’.” The exhibition opens on Thursday 1st October 2009 and runs at the Fresh Gallery Otara until 24 October 2009. The exhibition features an artist talk on Saturday 17 October at 12 pm. Fresh Gallery Otara is a community gallery profiling new Pacific art from Manukau City. Read more about Raymond Sagapolutele from The Aucklander.

"The lights are out but no-ones home" (2009) by Raymond Sagapolutele. (Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara.)

“Have A Little Faith” is the title of Niki Hastings-McFall’s latest exhibition which is showing in Dunedin. Niki’s art practice is informed by her own heritage, beliefs and by her experience in cultural diversity. In this exhibition Niki delves into the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death. The exhibition runs from 19 September to 14 October 2009 at the Milford Galleries in Dunedin. Niki first met with her father’s Samoan family in 1992 and since that point her work has explored her personal heritage. Her work is represented in New Zealand (including the Dowse Art Museum, Auckland Museum and Te Papa), and in Australian and American art collections. She graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts (BVA) from Auckland University at Manukau School of Visual Arts and earlier graduated with a Certificate in Contemporary Jewellery, from the Manukau Institute of Technology (1994).

Niki Hastings-McFall: “Flock” (2009) 48 Pieces; perspex, reflective road sign adhesivefilm installation size (v x h x d): 2875 x 2905 x 3 mm. (Image from Milford Galleries website.)

The Honourable Georgina te Heuheu, Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, will officially open “Pacific 5 Women, 5 Journeys”, an exhibition featuring five women whose work reflect New Zealand’s place as a Pacific nation. The five women are Alison Gilmour, Daniella Hulme, Juliet Best, Sylvia Marsters (painter of Cook Islands heritage) and Tui Hobson (carver of Cook Islands heritage). “Pacific 5 Women, 5 Journeys” opens on Thursday 17 September 2009 at the Exhibitions Gallery of Fine Art, 154 Featherston Street cnr Featherston and Brandon St, Wellington CBD.

(Tui Hobson, Twin Sails, macrocarpa, 140 cm. Image from the Exhbitions Gallery website.)

Vanguard Pasifika artists Andy Leleisi’uao and Niki Hastings-McFall are among a hundred New Zealand artists who have been shortlisted for the 18th Wallace Art Awards, New Zealand’s longest-surviving and largest annual art awards. Well-known for the social and political flavour of his art, Andy challenges his audiences to question conventional views about being Pacific in New Zealand. Niki uses a variety of media including shells, glass beads, metal, filmstrip, and plastic, which she juxtaposes on traditional Pacific symbols. Her art reflects the merging of cultures in New Zealand and the emergence of an urban Pacific. The Wallace Art Awards are worth over $100,000. The winners receive valuable residencies at prestigious international studios. Work by the finalists will be displayed at the Aotea Centre in Auckland from September 8th – October 2nd 2009. The winner will be announced on Monday, 7 September 2009 at 6pm, at the Aotea Centre. Free entry, all welcome.

Niki Hastings-McFall, “Yellow”, 2008. Synthetic Lei flowers, light unit size (Diameter x Depth mm): 580 x 180. Image from the Milford Galleries Website.