Fresh 10 marks the end of another successful year for South Auckland’s Fresh Gallery Otara. This exhibition showcases a selection of works by South Auckland Pacific artists whose art has featured at the gallery during 2010. Fresh 10 is curated by Nicole Lim and features works by Leilani Kake, Niutuiatua Lemalu, Pelenato Liufau, Cerisse Palalagi, Jacinda Pini, Genevieve Pini, Ema Tavola and Czarina Wilson. The exhibition opened last night and runs until 24 December 2010. For general enquiries contact nicole.lim@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or phone 09 271 6019. Meanwhile, Tanu Gago’s exhibition You Love My Fresh continues until 12 December at the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga. (Image: Video still, Kia Ora 2 Kia Orana (2010), by Leilani Kake. Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
Exhibitions by two of New Zealand’s most prominent contemporary Pacific artists will end this Saturday 27 November 2010 at Auckland’s Whitespace Gallery. Andy Leleisi’uao and Janet Lilo are both artists whose work consistently pushes at the edges of contemporary Pacific art. Andy has had success this year with a solo exhibition at Kips Gallery in New York followed by a three month residency in Taipei. He was the first Pacific artist to be awarded a three month residency at the prestigious Mc Cahon House. He has used the time to produce a body of work for this exhibition about love, acceptance and abandonment. Janet Lilo is back from a successful residency in Japan and has been described as an artist with “an acute consciousness of the politics of representation” Her work as a visual artist, social commentator and community documenter is likened to “a breath of fresh air for the contemporary Pacific arts sector” (Ema Tavola, 2009). (Image adapted from the Whitespace Gallery website)
In time for the coming summer, Christchurch-based music and performing arts group Pacific Underground has serves up a new CD: Island Summer. Directed by Pos Mavaega with lead vocals from Tanya Muagututi’a and crew, the album produces music that combines original songs and the traditional music of Samoa. Island Summer is the second album for Pos, the first being the ground-breaking CD Landmark in 1999, a compilation album by Anton Carter that has the very first recordings of Scribe, the Naked Samoans and Christchurch Hip Hop pioneers Beats ‘n’ Pieces. Since its beginnings in 1993, Pacific Underground has became well known for producing plays such as Fresh Off The Boat by Oscar Kightley and Simon Small (1993-1995), Sons by Victor Rodger (1995), and Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley (1997-1998). The latest comedy Angels by Tanya Muagututi’a and Joy Vaele was staged earlier this year. Pacific Underground has also been the force behind Christchurch’s ten Pacific Arts festivals (2001-2010). For email orders of Island Summer, write to islandsummer@gmail.com ($30.00).
The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Weta Workshop Award for Creativity has gone to Auckland-born and Samoa-raised Samuelu Siilata. He received the award last Friday, 19 November 2010, at a ceremony in Auckland to honour high-achieving Pacific youth. Samuelu’s creativity encompasses poetry, music, dance, painting, carving, costume, design, screenwriting and more. But his real passion is film. Speaking about his award, Samuelu said “as soon as I heard about The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award for Creativity and the opportunity to work at Weta, with a paid internship, I knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime. When I found out I was one of the finalists I was just blown away – the interview was conducted by Weta creators and directors, Andrew Taylor and Tania Rodger. They gave me a full tour of all the studios – it was just an amazing experience.” Samuelu loves ancient history and culture and says he wants to bring those worlds back to life through the cinematic screen: “I believe that cinema audiences are looking for novelty – you see the effects of indigenous culture in huge blockbuster films like Avatar. My goal is to tell the stories that have not been told – Polynesian stories. I want to show and share these worlds which no one has ever seen before, worlds that, say, the first European explorers such as James Cook saw them. I think that would be amazing.” In offering advice to arts graduates, Samuelu said, “there are a lot of expectations about getting a job when you’ve finished a degree – but it’s important not to lose heart. I believe there’s a season for everything so this year has been a good year to take stock.” For more on this story, visit the Auckland University website.
The Mansfield Gallery of contemporary art in Nelson is proudly exhibiting Ikamana, Fatu Feu’u’s memorial to the loss and devastation caused by last year’s tsunami. One of his paintings is in honour of his home village of Poutasi. His tsunami work is imbued with hope rather than despair and incorporates the rich patterns of siapo (printed barkcloth) and tatau (tattoo), the bright sky and seas, lush greens, glittering fish and spirit gods of his native Samoa. Feu’u also blends in his New Zealand influences, and says he “paints for the future”. Since the 1980s, Feu’u has been a pioneer in the creation of a fresh genre of Pacific art, and was a strong force in influencing a new generation of Polynesian artists. His paintings and sculptures are exhibited in many galleries around the world including Te Papa Tongarewa, the Centre Culturel Jean-Marie Tjibaou in New Caledonia, the Frankfurt Art Museum, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Ikamana continues at Mansfield Gallery until 27 November 2010.
Brown Ink is a series of workshops organised by Auckland’s Playmarket to develop Maori and Pasifika plays, to work with producers, and to encourage women writing for theatre. Writing workshops from experienced and celebrated New Zealand playwrights Stuart Hoar and Victor Rodger will foreground clinics, open to observers, of two new Pasifika works: Rushing Dolls by Courtney Meredith with script advisor Toa Fraser and E ono tama’i pato by Maureen Mariner Fepuleai with script advisor Margret-Mary Hollins. Producers and venue managers will be available in a kind of speed dating event to be grilled on what they look for when programming work and how to get work from page to stage. A spotlight will be thrown on women writing for theatre – asking the hard questions of celebrated and emerging playwrights Riwia Brown (Irirangi Bay, Once Were Warriors), Briar Grace Smith (Purapurawhetu, Nga Pou Wahine) Miria George (and what remains, He Reo Aroha), Dianna Fuemana (Mapaki, The Packer) and Leilani Unasa (His Mother’s Son). In a feature session John Broughton will discuss his journey as a playwright and the pleasure and pain of creating the classic work Michael James Manaia. By special arrangement with Taki Rua Theatre a semi-staged reading of this powerful play will be presented in the evening and open to the wider public for koha entry. The workshops run from 10am – 5pm, on 27 November 2010 at the Mangere Arts Centre (Cnr Bader Drive and Orly Ave). Food and drinks will be provided. The event is open to all playwrights and interested theatre practitioners. To register, click here. For more info, call Jenni Heka – 09 365 2648.
Dunedin weaver Misa Emma Kesha has won the Senior Pacific Artist’s award ($10,000) at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2010. Accepting the award, Mrs Kesha said the award was a “gift” for her whole community. Mrs Kesha was influenced by her mother and grandmother and said weaving was an everyday activity when she was growing up in Samoa. This changed when she came to New Zealand and her involvement in the Pacific community arose out of a desire to keep the tradition and culture alive. She established the Multicultural Weavers Association in Dunedin in 1983 and tutored in places such as Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia and Australia. In 1998, she became the first woman in her family to be given the matai title Misa, in recognition of her contribution to the family and community in Samoa. Describing weaving as her passion, Mrs Kesha’s aim as an artist is to “promote and preserve the art of weaving” through the sharing of knowledge, especially with the younger generation, lest it be lost in modern society. The Arts Pasifika Awards were set up in 1996 to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand. To read a full report of this story read the article in the Otago Daily Times. (Image of Misa Emma Kesha (left) and Pele Walker, adapted from the Otago Daily Times)
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)
The public will get a first glimpse of Victor Rodger’s much anticipated new play Village People at Auckland’s Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre. A reading of the play will be staged as work-in-progress in a short public season from 13 to 16 October 2010. Village People is about four estranged half-Samoan siblings, from all corners of the world who come to Samoa to celebrate the youngest becoming a matai and confront their difficult relationships with each other, their shared past, and Samoa itself. Rodger wrote much of the play as the first Pacific recipient of the prestigious Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury. He is the award-winning author of the acclaimed My Name is Gary Cooper and currently writes for and acts in Shortland Street, New Zealand’s longest running TV soap opera. Village People will stage alongside two other plays, Our Maoris by Arthur Meek and What to do about Dad by Stephen Sinclair. For bookings, call (09) 3082383.
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