Posts tagged ‘Fijian Art’

10 years of collaboration // #PIMPIWinterSeries

Hello, my name is Vinesh opens this weekend at Lime Espresso Bar & Eatery as the first exhibition of the 2017 PIMPI Winter Series. Photographer, Vinesh Kumaran and I have been working together on projects for more than a decade!

The first exhibition I produced with Vinesh’s work was called (Re)Locating Home, a group show that was  staged in Suva, Fiji and at Fresh Gallery Ōtara in 2006. Vinesh’s work was a single wall-mounted image and a beautiful book of photographs documenting a highly personal journey retracing his family’s historical migration from India to Fiji and on to South Auckland. I witnessed his work drawing people in, sharing insights to a journey many would only dream of.

Vinesh and I have since collaborated on photographs for exhibitions, public display, publications and online galleries, but this is the first time we’ve made an exhibition about photographs Vinesh took on an iPhone!

Hello, my name is Vinesh is a title devised over a few drinks with Vinesh, designer Edgar Melitao and curator Nigel Borell. The original concept for the exhibition was developed for Māngere Arts Centre but the exhibition didn’t eventuate. Using the impressive artistic direction of Edgar Melitao and a tag team of curators, we had hoped to help Vinesh realise this important project in the most beautiful way, symbolically in the neighbourhood he grew up in.

One year on, Hello, my name is Vinesh has been re-born, produced by just me, but informed by those initial brainstorms with the Vinesh Kumaran dream team! This special show breathes life into the 2017 PIMPI Winter Series as the first exhibition of the series. It is a complete privilege to help see this exhibition come to life and we are both super grateful for the support of the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board.

Hello, my name is Vinesh opens at 6pm on Saturday 17 June and runs from Monday – Friday, 7am – 3pm and Saturdays, 9am – 2pm, until Friday 7 July at Lime Espresso Bar & Eatery, 507 Great South Road, Ōtāhuhu, South Auckland.

Fijian breastplates inspire contemporary artist

on March 27, 2014

I made a series of collages for the #Tattoo4Tonga fundraising effort last month inspired by a visit to Auckland Museum. Associate Curator Pacific, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai bought one the works in my Paper Breastplates Series and wrote this blog about the inspiration that stemmed from a quick visit to the Auckland Museum store room! Click here to read more…

Click to read more

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#ConcealedAncestors Works for Sale

Concealed Ancestors
A solo exhibition by Margaret Aull

Works for Sale

Transferred8243139615_d2dc0a937f_c

Acrylic, ochre, graphite, ink, 24-carat gold leaf on paper

$1900

Framed 700 x 932mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Urenui" (2012)Urenui

Acrylic, aerosol, ink on paper

$1200

Framed 619 x 824mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

8244207524_ddfc45f32b_cRe-configure ethnographic

Acrylic, graphite, ink on paper

$1600

Framed 700 x 932mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8374419681_81d3d2abfaMata Rangatira

Acrylic, ink on paper

$1200

Framed 619 x 824mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8244209424_de1a162a30_cI told you it started here!

Ochre, graphite, ink, 24-carat gold leaf on paper

$1900

Framed 700 x 932mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

8244206278_23d61212de_zHaere mai, Vanua

Acrylic, ink, ochre on paper

$2500

Framed 905 x 1218mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8243140703_4cdc16c1cf_zWhakapapa transfer station

Acrylic, graphite, ink, 24-carat gold leaf on paper

$1900

Framed 700 x 932mm

SOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matakau [installation]

2-pac gloss acrylic, Totara

$4500

Dimensions variable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8244208830_79037ec6c4_c

Pacific – niger

Acrylic, ink, ochre on paper

$1600

Framed 700 x 932mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"E Moemoea" (2012) by Margaret AullE Moemoea

Acrylic, ochre on paper

$1600

Framed 700 x 932mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All works 2012, mounted on acid free mat board, framed using UV-reflective glass.

Prices listed in New Zealand dollars.

Framed dimensions refer to the size of the glass, actual size is approximately 50mm larger.

The exhibition Concealed Ancestors (12 January – 23 February 2013) at Papakura Art Gallery was supported with funding from the Pacific Arts Committee, Creative New Zealand and Toi o Manukau.

Read more about Concealed Ancestors here

Contact Ema Tavola for further information and sales enquiries: Mb (NZ) 027 5779369 / Email Ema.Tavola@clear.net.nz

#ConcealedAncestors ~ a curatorial response

“Urenui” (2012)

Oceania is my natural habitat… at times, I am overwhelmed with longing.

I think of the ocean often.

I remember the feeling of belonging, of breathing warm air and feeling my feet touching the ground and feeling secure. Grounded.

Suva rain and softened earth
In between heaven and here
My heart… beats… home


I am the Ocean

Not visiting. Not searching.
She is my rhythm and I am her soul.
I see myself in people and smiles. I feel myself in spaces between

[I am a Fijian in silence]

Detail, Fijian ochre
“Matakau” (2012) installation, Totara and acrylic paint


Fiji Museum

The smell of collecting is intoxicating.
Aged
Dusty
Euro-

Noble. Memories. Frozen.
A History of Colonial Encounter.
Objects boxed, cased, pinned. Mana dissected.

In traces of silvery residue, I see slivers of my past.

Imperfect empowered

Excavating identity
Interrogating memory / loss

Eyes and tattooed mouths
Fingers and hands

She crafts inky dreams

Painting in the gaps of our mixed genealogy

Margaret Aull with her work, “Seek Utopia – The Way Home (series), Hawaiki nui: 2/4” (2012)


Anchored by new roots

Diaspora distorts colonisation

Generations [re]moved
Tradition and a new transmission
The economic burden and first world sacrifice

Emo- evolution
Facebook family and a digital constitution
Fiji Online

[Optional]

Fijian sasa broom at Margaret Aull's studio, Te Awamutu


Concealed Ancestors

In language and behind eyes
I am your anger

In signs and knotted hair
In blood and sweat

You are my limits and my potential

I am filled with your journey
An agent of future souls

This is an experimental piece of writing by Ema Tavola developed for the exhibition catalogue of Concealed Ancestors – A solo exhibition by Margaret Aull

Margaret Aull’s Concealed Ancestors

I’m currently writing about Fijian-Māori visual artist, Margaret Aull’s new work for her upcoming exhibition, Concealed Ancestors.

I met Margaret in 2008 in Suva, Fiji – we were both part of the Vasu: Pacific Women of Power project at the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture at the University of the South Pacific. Since then, we’ve worked together on a number of projects and I’ve enjoyed seeing her work shift and change.

Margaret’s work is intentionally and unintentionally a declaration of her cultural position as a Fijian-Māori / Māori-Fijian. She has made work exploring flags, identity and ownership, as in the work Kiwi mate (2011) [above] and explored political similarities and colonial struggle of both Fiji and Aotearoa.

In a review in Eyeline magazine (Issue 73), Tessa Laird describes Margaret’s work, Tino Rangatiratanga and Coups (2010)as, “a broken composition that is part flag, part museum display case, with fragmented artifacts subjected to colonial categorisation and branding”. The work was created for the exhibition Native Coconut at Fresh Gallery Otara featuring three artists who share both Māori and Pacific Island ancestry.

Last year, Margaret trialled collaborating with a graphic designer to develop the work Fiji ki Aotearoa (2011) which was shown in the exhibition diasporadic679 at various venues in Ōtāhuhu in acknowledgment of Fiji Independence Day.

The work in Concealed Ancestors is a further shift in thinking and aesthetic consideration. The exhibition showcases a series of works on paper and a sculptural installation. Produced as part of Margaret’s post-graduate studies, the work is an in-depth visual enquiry into the concept of tapu / tabu or sacredness informed in part by a recent trip to Fiji and time spent at the Fiji Museum.

Concealed Ancestors runs from 12 January – 23 February 2013 at Papakura Art Gallery, 10 Averill Street, Papakura, South Auckland

Concealed Ancestors

“E Moemoea” (2012) by Margaret Aull, acrylic, ink, collage on paper.

Concealed Ancestors is the upcoming solo exhibition by Waikato-based visual artist, Margaret Aull, co-curated by Nigel Borell and Ema Tavola for Papakura Art Gallery, South Auckland.

In this new body of work, Aull investigates the concept of tapu / tabu within both Maori and Fijian cultural frameworks. Inspired by research at the Fiji Museum, she explores visual representations of ancestors and deities, spiritual lore, mana and life force.

Utlising ochre used in the making of masi (traditional Fijian bark cloth), Aull incorporates the whenua / vanua within her work. Juxtaposed with imagery from Museum collections, she reclaims and re-activates meaning, creating visual mediations of her blurred genetic code.

Margaret Aull (Te Rarawa, Tuwharetoa, Fiji) has exhibited extensively in New Zealand since 2005 and is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design.

Check out Concealed Ancestors at Papakura Art Gallery from 12 January – 23 February 2013.

Concealed Ancestors is produced with support from the Pacific Arts Committee, Creative New Zealand and Toi o Manukau.

Click here to read more about Concealed Ancestors
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