Pacific Starmap

The ASB Community Trust has advised that its funding to the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust has been generously lifted by 20%. The funding period as also been extended to 18 months. This is a reflection of the trust’s excellent work in supporting and promoting Pacific art in New Zealand. This new money will allow the trust to expand its programmes into new and exciting directions. For more information about Tautai Trust’s programmes, visit www.tautai.org.

Samoa-based artist, Vanya Taule’alo, is to launch her upcoming Tsunami series via her new website www.vanyataulealo.com as a way of interpresting the impact of the Tsunami through visual art. Taule’alo whose most recent work before the September 30 tragedy was dedicated to Samoa’s environment says she was profoundly moved by what she saw during the aftermathof the Tsunami which killed over 180 people on Upolu Island and destroyed several villages. She is hoping that her website will help to connect her with a wider audience and to share her concerns about climate change and the destruction of Samoa’s natural environment. Over the last few years the artist’s work has moved into the semi-abstract, using texture, photography and mixed media. Her next exhibition will feature work from Fatu Feu’u and Isabelle Staron Tutugorois and is scheduled to open at the Salamander Gallery in Christchurch on 15 February, 2010. For more details, see www.vanyataulealo.com.

Prominent South Auckland Fijian curator and artist, Ema Tavola, is presenting her first solo exhibition Blood and Bone tomorrow, Saturday 19 December 2009 for one night only at the Salon, House of Taonga, in Auckland. Blood and Bone presents new works that appeal to her, as she says “when I think about my ancestors, my wiring … my inextricable connection to my vanua, to Fiji, as my life force, running through my blood and bones”. The exhibition is also an homage to women who have supported her and represents her personal experiences of safety in relationships. It is also her chance to experience an exhibition from an artist’s point of view and feel the stresses and anticipation, the nerves and excitement of exposing her heart to the world. She adds, “Since leaving art school, I had prioritised most things over making art, but I maintained a drawing practise …. This new body of work is drawing heavy. My concerns with portability are also present – as someone with one foot in Aotearoa and one foot still in Fiji, I have always been concerned with the idea that my work can be easily transported, not only physically, but conceptually – it’s important to me and the work I do as a curator, that my work is accessible and relevant to the communities I draw my inspiration from.” The evening is from 6 to 10 pm on level 1, St Kevins Arcade, Karangahape Road, Auckland (B.Y.O.). For more information, visit Ema’s blog at www.ColourMeFiji.com. (Image courtesy of the artist.)

Pioneer Pacific artist Fatu Feu’u has unveiled new work in response to the recent tsunami in Samoa and its effects on his people and land. One striking bronze piece is reminiscent of a Classical Greek tragedy mask; another has a powerful Picasso-type abstract appearance portraying the strength and stoicism of the Polynesian people. Two other masks convey elements of images found on 3000 year old shards of Lapita pottery dug from sites near Fatu’s village of Poutasi on the island of Upolu, Samoa.  These pieces are now available through the Okaioceanikart Gallery.

(Bronze Head 1 by Fatu Feu’u, 2009. Image courtesy of Okaioceanikart Gallery).