The contribution of Pacific artists was celebrated last Monday at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2010 in Wellington. Five awards were given in recognition, as Pacific Arts Committee chair Pele Walker explained, of “those artists working to preserve the traditions of our homelands … to those … who are forging new paths with new technologies”. The five awards and their recipients were Emerging Pacific Artist’s award ($4000): Tongan carver Visesio Siasau; the Iosefa Enari memorial award ($4000): Samoan tenor Pene Junior Pati; the Pacific heritage arts award ($5000): O Mata! Tokelauan Dance Group. The Contemporary Pacific artist’s award ($5000) was presented to Michael Tuffery, in recognition of his career and contribution in bringing a New Zealand-born Pacific experience to contemporary New Zealand. The Senior Pacific Artist’s award ($10,000) was won by Samoan weaver Misa Emma Kesha. Walker said the awards were a time to reflect on the collective cultural wealth of Pacific artists living in New Zealand. The awards, established in 1996 by Creative New Zealand, are intended to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts and are the only national awards that recognise Pasifika artists across a range of art forms. To read more about this story, see the article in Spasifik Magazine. (Image of Michel Tuffery and Visesio Siasau (left) adapted from the Creative New Zealand website)
Manukau artist Ngaahina Hohaia will talk about the thinking and inspiration behind her solo exhibition “Everything is Honky-Dory” on Saturday 30 October from noon to 1.30 pm at the Fresh Gallery Otara, Otara Town Centre, South Auckland. The exhibition is part of the Manukau Festival of Arts 2010. (Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
A paid internship at world-renowned WETA Workshops, tuition fees at Auckland University or an overseas trip are still up for grabs for three outstanding young Pacific people – but they need to act fast as time to apply is nearly up. The offers are open to winners of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards, announced last month and open for nominations until 11 October. The awards are being administered by the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, although selection is by an independent panel. “We know that there are many fabulous young leaders out there in our Pacific communities – we would really like to see as many of them as possible take advantage of this opportunity,” Ministry chief executive Dr Colin Tukuitonga says. The awards are in three categories: Creativity, sponsored by WETA Workshops, Inspiration, sponsored by globally successful software company COGITA and Leadership, sponsored by top tertiary institution the University of Auckland. Nominees need to be 17-24, of Pacific descent with New Zealand residency, and able to demonstrate community involvement, integrity, and success in one of the three award categories. The closing date for nominations is 11 October, and winners will be announced 19 November. All information, including entry forms and details of the awards, can be found at www.pacificyouthawards.org.nz.
Fabrics have a long tradition of informing the matriarchal descent lines across cultures. Last year, artist Paula Schaafhausen purchased a sewing machine so that she could create garments from the many precious fabrics stored in her family dowry box. She says that she has been teaching herself to sew in the last year and in the process, she has become inspired to create art works that record the time between the memories contained within the box, and the new memories they will create when they become garments in their own right. Schaafhausen says ‘the art works have become my investigations into the purpose of thread, and how thread metaphorically connects me to the past and the future’. Material Culture is sponsored by the Fresh Gallery Otara and runs until 2 October 2010. The artist will talk about her work at 12 noon on Saturday 25 September. (Image: ‘Flora MacDonald’, 2010. Courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
Tanu Gago is a south Auckland-based Samoan filmmaker who has been working with Ema Tavola of Fresh Gallery Otara to produce his first solo exhibition, ‘You Love My Fresh’ which has just opened at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Manukau City. The experimental video installation explores Samoan identity, intergenerational cultural transmission and gender in South Auckland. Tanu was a contributing artist to the smallaxe09 project, a collaborative video work produced by Janet Lilo and Ema Tavola as part of the invitational exhibition profiling new art venues at Auckland’s ARTSPACE gallery in September 2009. Tanu’s short film, The Woods, also featured in the inaugural Manukau Film Festival in 2008. The exhibition is co-sponsored by Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Fresh Gallery Otara and continues at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga, Manukau City until 5 December 2010. (Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
On the cusp of a new decade, a group of senior-level art students demonstrate what it means to create art in an environment no longer bound by rigid geographical notions of place. A large-scale multimedia exhibition opening at St Paul Street Gallery in on 9 September and running until the 24th, Make/Shift will present the viewer with the exciting array of art that is being produced by Auckland’s Pacific innovators throughout the city’s five tertiary institutions. Curator Nina Tonga says that owing to globalisation, the Pacific identity has become increasingly interconnected across traditional geographical boundaries, and these artists’ work provides an insight into art-making practices in a ‘post-colonial, post-migration, post-facebook world’. The line-up features Luke Willis Thompson, Mele ’Uhamaka, Ane Tonga, Tony Tia, Caroline Cotter, Victoria Patea, Vaimoana Eves, Selina Woulfe, Chloe Marsters and Nastashia Simeona. Make/shift is organised by the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and opens at 5.30pm on 9 September with a special guest performance by Black Grace. Artists and curator will walk and talk about their work at 2pm on 18 September.
Wellington based multi-media visual artist Sheyne Tuffery, best known for the dynamic style of his prints and woodcuts, is exhibiting Tectonic Plates at Wellington’s Solander Gallery (218 Willis Street). The exhibition is a reflection on New Zealand’s geological history as a singular landmass and natural sanctuary for a vast array of bird species including those that are now extinct, like the giant penguin. Inspired by research into his Samoan heritage and a fascination with New Zealand’s geological history, Sheyne uses his work to create and represent his own cultural context and sense of belonging. The exhibition runs from 8 September to 2 October 2010. Tectonic Plates comes hot on the heels of Sheyne’s other current exhibition, Wahine Atua And The Sonar Interference which runs until 12 September 2010 at Lower Hutt’s Mount Marua Gallery. (Image adapted from the Solander Gallery website)
Niu Pasifik is an exhibition of contemporary art from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim from the personal collection of curator and educator Giles Peterson. It features multi-media work including graph art, painting, drawing, animation, hip hop music video, sculpture, photography, installation, embroidery textile and street fashion. The exhibition is in its final days and closes this Sunday, 5 September, 2010 at the Mount Marua Gallery in Upper Hutt, Wellington. (Image adapted from the Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre website)
Manukau’s much-anticipated new arts facility, Mangere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, will officially open on Friday 3 September 2010. The opening will be followed by a full weekend of celebrations, with more than 40 performances featuring over 300 performers. The centre’s theatre and courtyard will be packed with activity including dance, music, comedy and poetry by acts including Kila Kokonut Krew, Tony T Band, Grace Ikenasio, Moana Ete, MBrace Pacific Dance, Anonymouz, Manukau City Concert Band and many more. The inaugural exhibition in the gallery Manu Toi: Artists and Messengers (curated by Nigel Borell) will also be open for viewing. The exhibition features an impressive line-up artists with a connection to the Mangere area, working in a range of disciplines including photography, installation art, moving image and more. For a full schedule of the opening weekend, go to www.manukau.govt.nz/mangereartscentre.
Opening celebration weekend:
When: Saturday 4 September, 10 am – 11 pm
Sunday 5 September, 12 pm – 4 pm
Where: Mangere Arts Centre – Nga Tohu o Uenuku, Corner Bader Drive and Orly Avenue
Mangere
Cost: Free
The spirited work of three Pacific female artists is to be exhibited for a month at Auckland’s Okaioceanikart Gallery and then at the Calder and Lawson Gallery in Hamilton. The Flora Koloa Kapkap exhibition will feature Dagmar Dyck (Tonga) Ellie Fa’amauri (Solomon Islands) and Sylvia Marsters (Cook Islands). The Auckland exhibition will be opened on Wednesday 25 August 2010by Professor Jonathon Mane–Wheoki from the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. It will run at Okaioceanikart’s Reef Gallery (69 Beach Rd) until 24 Sept 2010 and includes an artists’ floor talk at 12 noon on Saturday 5 September. The exhibition then moves to Hamilton where it will be opened on Wednesday 29 September by Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku from the University of Waikato. The Hamilton exhibition runs until 16 October 2010. The artists will be in Hamilton to speak about their work at 7pm on Saturday 9 October at the University of Waikato’s Calder and Lawson Gallery. For more information call Ph +64 (9) 379 9051 or 027 285 4350 and visit the Okaioceanikart website. (Image of Ellie Fa’amauri’s Intertwine, 2010, acrylic on canvas; adapted from the Flora Koloa Kapkap poster.)
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