Viewers have two more days to enjoy “Tongan Style”, an exhibition featuring the Tongan art and practice of embroidery and crocheting. The exhibition has been showing since 16 April at the Fresh Gallery Otara in South Auckland and will end this Saturday 8 May 2010 with an artists’ floor talk. “Tongan Style” is a special tribute to five Tongan-born, New Zealand based women artists and their embroidered and crocheted sheets, pillow cases and dresses. Curator Kolokesa Mahina-Tuai says embroidery and crochet as fine arts play a significant role in Tongan ceremonies – including gift giving, birthdays, weddings and funeral decorations. Other Pacific cultures practice the art of embroidery and crocheting including the Cook Islands and Kiribati but this exhibition features the work and garments of five Tongan women: Lingisiva ‘Aloua, Kolokesa Kulikefu, Noma ‘Ofa-ki-nu’usila Talakia’atu, Manuesina Tonata and Hulita Tupou. (For more information, read an article about the exhibition in the Papakura Courier, 5 May, 2010.)
Detail of embroidered pillowcase made in the 1990s by Kolokesa Kulīkefu. (Image courtesy of the Fresh Gallery Otara.)
