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[valasileotaseiuli]

They sailed through on foreign White Clouds, 2016 plaster, transferred image, 1200 x 1400 x 200 mm.

This work was a part of Influx curated by Ane Tonga and marked the eighth Tautai Tertiary exhibition held at ST Paul St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) on 23 September 2016. Artist statement are as follows: They sailed through on foreign White Clouds (2016) by Valasi Leota-Seiuli traces historical imagery from the Second Civil War in Samoa (1898 -949) taken by New Zealand Photographer Alfred John Tattersall. The artist has transferred Tattersall's photograph of British, American and German ships in 1899 onto a sculptural frame. Parts of the image are emphasised while others are lost through transferral; the fragmentary result connotes the way in which both image and history can be manipulated. '

The term Influx evokes ideas of constant change, movement and abundance.

Influx: The Time is Now explores this idea in relation to eleven artists of Pacific Island heritage who have made artworks during their tertiary studies at art institutions in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. The exhibition looks at the way that formal tertiary education engages an artist's practice and how this influence affects and informs Pacific art today.

Tertiary art education encourages artists to develop critical thinking to consider their unique perspective and place in the world. It is a time when many artists uncover their personal power and agency as social, political and cultural commentators and provocateurs.

While the artists in this exhibition are all tertiary trained, and are all linked through shared Oceanic histories, they are not defined by one artistic methodology or any prescribed set of cultural politics. Their works operate in a constant state of flux, pushing and pulling our understandings of Pacific art. As a site of dynamic art production, the exhibition provides a perspective of the Pacific that is much wider than New Zealand alone.

Included in the exhibition is a range of moving image, photography, painting, poetry and graphic design works by Louisa Afoa, Nina Oberg Humphries, Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Christina Pataialii, Jasmine Te Hira, Pelepesite Tofilau and Rhueben Meredith, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Share Tu’ihalangingie, Pati Solomona Tyrell and John Vea.

These artists are reflective of a new generation who do not await graduation to explore the interface between art and life instead they actively pursue the potential of art to impact their communities and the world around them now.

[valasileotaseiuli]

They sailed through on foreign White Clouds, 2016 plaster, transferred image, 1200 x 1400 x 200 mm.

This work was a part of Influx curated by Ane Tonga and marked the eighth Tautai Tertiary exhibition held at ST Paul St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) on 23 September 2016. Artist statement are as follows: They sailed through on foreign White Clouds (2016) by Valasi Leota-Seiuli traces historical imagery from the Second Civil War in Samoa (1898 -949) taken by New Zealand Photographer Alfred John Tattersall. The artist has transferred Tattersall's photograph of British, American and German ships in 1899 onto a sculptural frame. Parts of the image are emphasised while others are lost through transferral; the fragmentary result connotes the way in which both image and history can be manipulated. '

The term Influx evokes ideas of constant change, movement and abundance.

Influx: The Time is Now explores this idea in relation to eleven artists of Pacific Island heritage who have made artworks during their tertiary studies at art institutions in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. The exhibition looks at the way that formal tertiary education engages an artist's practice and how this influence affects and informs Pacific art today.

Tertiary art education encourages artists to develop critical thinking to consider their unique perspective and place in the world. It is a time when many artists uncover their personal power and agency as social, political and cultural commentators and provocateurs.

While the artists in this exhibition are all tertiary trained, and are all linked through shared Oceanic histories, they are not defined by one artistic methodology or any prescribed set of cultural politics. Their works operate in a constant state of flux, pushing and pulling our understandings of Pacific art. As a site of dynamic art production, the exhibition provides a perspective of the Pacific that is much wider than New Zealand alone.

Included in the exhibition is a range of moving image, photography, painting, poetry and graphic design works by Louisa Afoa, Nina Oberg Humphries, Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Christina Pataialii, Jasmine Te Hira, Pelepesite Tofilau and Rhueben Meredith, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Share Tu’ihalangingie, Pati Solomona Tyrell and John Vea.

These artists are reflective of a new generation who do not await graduation to explore the interface between art and life instead they actively pursue the potential of art to impact their communities and the world around them now.

[valasileotaseiuli]

They sailed through on foreign White Clouds, 2016 plaster, transferred image, 1200 x 1400 x 200 mm. (Close up on transferred image).

This work was a part of Influx curated by Ane Tonga and marked the eighth Tautai Tertiary exhibition held at ST Paul St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) on 23 September 2016. Artist statement are as follows: They sailed through on foreign White Clouds (2016) by Valasi Leota-Seiuli traces historical imagery from the Second Civil War in Samoa (1898 -949) taken by New Zealand Photographer Alfred John Tattersall. The artist has transferred Tattersall's photograph of British, American and German ships in 1899 onto a sculptural frame. Parts of the image are emphasised while others are lost through transferral; the fragmentary result connotes the way in which both image and history can be manipulated. '

The term Influx evokes ideas of constant change, movement and abundance.

Influx: The Time is Now explores this idea in relation to eleven artists of Pacific Island heritage who have made artworks during their tertiary studies at art institutions in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. The exhibition looks at the way that formal tertiary education engages an artist's practice and how this influence affects and informs Pacific art today.

Tertiary art education encourages artists to develop critical thinking to consider their unique perspective and place in the world. It is a time when many artists uncover their personal power and agency as social, political and cultural commentators and provocateurs.

While the artists in this exhibition are all tertiary trained, and are all linked through shared Oceanic histories, they are not defined by one artistic methodology or any prescribed set of cultural politics. Their works operate in a constant state of flux, pushing and pulling our understandings of Pacific art. As a site of dynamic art production, the exhibition provides a perspective of the Pacific that is much wider than New Zealand alone.

Included in the exhibition is a range of moving image, photography, painting, poetry and graphic design works by Louisa Afoa, Nina Oberg Humphries, Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Christina Pataialii, Jasmine Te Hira, Pelepesite Tofilau and Rhueben Meredith, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Share Tu’ihalangingie, Pati Solomona Tyrell and John Vea.

These artists are reflective of a new generation who do not await graduation to explore the interface between art and life instead they actively pursue the potential of art to impact their communities and the world around them now.

[valasileotaseiuli]

'Our Ancestors prayer' - Live art performance as part of the One Kiosk Many Exchanges' collaborative art performance event held at Emilia Maud Nixon Garden of Memories, 37 Uxbridge Road, Howick, Auckland. (8 October, 2016) - (Attached link to video capture of live performance)

'One Kiosk Many Exchanges is a collaborative performance art event instigated by artist John Vea that responds to the entwined histories of the Emilia Maud Nixon Garden of Memories in Howick, Auckland. The garden was established by Nixon in 1962 to recognise the tangata whenua Ngāi Tai and the legacy of European pioneer women. Situated in the heart of Howick Village, the garden has additional significance as being a site of Māori habitation for at least 300 years and also a colonial significance for being strategic land that the British military secured through the occupation of fencible soldiers. In more recent years, the garden has been the site of change due to a fire that damaged Te Whare o Torere and then later through the construction of a new building Te Whare Matariki.

One Kiosk Many Exchanges seeks to create an exchange with this history through a series of performative actions within the garden using a pop-up marquee. The title for the work borrows the Turkish term 'kiosk', a word originally used to describe an open pavilion-like building to gather under but was later used by Europeans to describe a space to serve or sell goods from. Vea brings this mixed understanding of the kiosk in relation to the complex legacy of the gardens as being a place of colonisation and community, of collapse and rebuilding and of trauma and healing.

Recognising that they are manuhiri to the garden and New Zealanders' from many different cultural backgrounds, Vea and his collaborating artists will also explore what it means to be visitors responding to a site of rich local significance. They will attempt to do so by engaging with shared notions of unity, temporality, permanence and precariousness that have further significance within the wider context of Auckland's burgeoning population and growing housing shortage.

In collaboration with Kaitiaki Taonga Taini Drummond and artists Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Sione Mafi, Newman Tumata and Jimmy Wulf.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

'Our Ancestors prayer' - Live art performance as part of the One Kiosk Many Exchanges' collaborative art performance event held at Emilia Maud Nixon Garden of Memories, 37 Uxbridge Road, Howick, Auckland. (8 October, 2016) - (Attached link to video capture of live performance)

'One Kiosk Many Exchanges is a collaborative performance art event instigated by artist John Vea that responds to the entwined histories of the Emilia Maud Nixon Garden of Memories in Howick, Auckland. The garden was established by Nixon in 1962 to recognise the tangata whenua Ngāi Tai and the legacy of European pioneer women. Situated in the heart of Howick Village, the garden has additional significance as being a site of Māori habitation for at least 300 years and also a colonial significance for being strategic land that the British military secured through the occupation of fencible soldiers. In more recent years, the garden has been the site of change due to a fire that damaged Te Whare o Torere and then later through the construction of a new building Te Whare Matariki.

One Kiosk Many Exchanges seeks to create an exchange with this history through a series of performative actions within the garden using a pop-up marquee. The title for the work borrows the Turkish term 'kiosk', a word originally used to describe an open pavilion-like building to gather under but was later used by Europeans to describe a space to serve or sell goods from. Vea brings this mixed understanding of the kiosk in relation to the complex legacy of the gardens as being a place of colonisation and community, of collapse and rebuilding and of trauma and healing.

Recognising that they are manuhiri to the garden and New Zealanders' from many different cultural backgrounds, Vea and his collaborating artists will also explore what it means to be visitors responding to a site of rich local significance. They will attempt to do so by engaging with shared notions of unity, temporality, permanence and precariousness that have further significance within the wider context of Auckland's burgeoning population and growing housing shortage.

In collaboration with Kaitiaki Taonga Taini Drummond and artists Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Sione Mafi, Newman Tumata and Jimmy Wulf.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) (English translation: 'Call for Mother') as part of the collaborative art exhibition Social Matter held at the Blue Oyster Gallery on 26 October 2016. The artist statement from the show is as follows:

'Valasi Leota-Seiuli is interested in the idea of memory and embodied trauma. In her work vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) the artist has created sculptural objects made of plaster. The objects have images of five different houses transferred onto their surface, four houses depict the homes her father lived in that were all dawn raided in the 1970s while the fifth depicts the home Valasi’s father moved to Dunedin as a result of the raids. The fifth sculptural object was made on site at the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin.

On the opening night of Social Matter, Valasi's live performance involved installing sculptural objects while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work in particular the new addition of the fifth sculptural object; Valasi's father's home in Dunedin.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) (English translation: 'Call for Mother') as part of the collaborative art exhibition Social Matter held at the Blue Oyster Gallery on 26 October 2016. The artist statement from the show is as follows:

'Valasi Leota-Seiuli is interested in the idea of memory and embodied trauma. In her work vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) the artist has created sculptural objects made of plaster. The objects have images of five different houses transferred onto their surface, four houses depict the homes her father lived in that were all dawn raided in the 1970s while the fifth depicts the home Valasi’s father moved to Dunedin as a result of the raids. The fifth sculptural object was made on site at the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin.

On the opening night of Social Matter, Valasi's live performance involved installing sculptural objects while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work in particular the new addition of the fifth sculptural object; Valasi's father's home in Dunedin.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) (English translation: 'Call for Mother') as part of the collaborative art exhibition Social Matter held at the Blue Oyster Gallery on 26 October 2016. The artist statement from the show is as follows:

'Valasi Leota-Seiuli is interested in the idea of memory and embodied trauma. In her work vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) the artist has created sculptural objects made of plaster. The objects have images of five different houses transferred onto their surface, four houses depict the homes her father lived in that were all dawn raided in the 1970s while the fifth depicts the home Valasi’s father moved to Dunedin as a result of the raids. The fifth sculptural object was made on site at the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin.

On the opening night of Social Matter, Valasi's live performance involved installing sculptural objects while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work in particular the new addition of the fifth sculptural object; Valasi's father's home in Dunedin.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) (English translation: 'Call for Mother') as part of the collaborative art exhibition Social Matter held at the Blue Oyster Gallery on 26 October 2016. The artist statement from the show is as follows:

'Valasi Leota-Seiuli is interested in the idea of memory and embodied trauma. In her work vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) the artist has created sculptural objects made of plaster. The objects have images of five different houses transferred onto their surface, four houses depict the homes her father lived in that were all dawn raided in the 1970s while the fifth depicts the home Valasi’s father moved to Dunedin as a result of the raids. The fifth sculptural object was made on site at the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin.

On the opening night of Social Matter, Valasi's live performance involved installing sculptural objects while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work in particular the new addition of the fifth sculptural object; Valasi's father's home in Dunedin.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) (English translation: 'Call for Mother') as part of the collaborative art exhibition Social Matter held at the Blue Oyster Gallery on 26 October 2016. The artist statement from the show is as follows:

'Valasi Leota-Seiuli is interested in the idea of memory and embodied trauma. In her work vala au mai si ou Tina (2016) the artist has created sculptural objects made of plaster. The objects have images of five different houses transferred onto their surface, four houses depict the homes her father lived in that were all dawn raided in the 1970s while the fifth depicts the home Valasi’s father moved to Dunedin as a result of the raids. The fifth sculptural object was made on site at the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin.

On the opening night of Social Matter, Valasi's live performance involved installing sculptural objects while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work in particular the new addition of the fifth sculptural object; Valasi's father's home in Dunedin.'

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina - a live performance, sculptural works and moving image as a part of Tautai’s OFFSTAGE 7 exhibition held at Artspace in Auckland on Saturday 3rd September 2016. Below is the featured artist description of the work:

vala au mai si ou Tina (Calling for Mother) is a performance and moving image that also operates as memorial. On the opening night of Offstage Valasi’s performance will involve installing sculptural objects with her moving image work while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work.

‘Throughout his childhood, my father and his family moved and lived in multiple homes in Otara. My father experienced this trauma multiple times at a young age - four state houses he lived in were raided at dawn. This work is a memorial of the homes he once lived in, paying tribute to the resilience of not only my father, but also of the Polynesian people who wanted nothing more than to make a better life for their families.’

[valasileotaseiuli]

vala au mai si ou Tina - a live performance, sculptural works and moving image as a part of Tautai’s OFFSTAGE 7 exhibition held at Artspace in Auckland on Saturday 3rd September 2016. Below is the featured artist description of the work:

vala au mai si ou Tina (Calling for Mother) is a performance and moving image that also operates as memorial. On the opening night of Offstage Valasi’s performance will involve installing sculptural objects with her moving image work while singing and placing fresh lei onto the work.

‘Throughout his childhood, my father and his family moved and lived in multiple homes in Otara. My father experienced this trauma multiple times at a young age - four state houses he lived in were raided at dawn. This work is a memorial of the homes he once lived in, paying tribute to the resilience of not only my father, but also of the Polynesian people who wanted nothing more than to make a better life for their families.’

[valasileotaseiuli]

Collection of four plaster works featured in the Yours to tell exhibition at RM Gallery on Wednesday 6 August 2016. Below is the artist blurb with a description of the works from the show.

'The mid 1970’s was a distressing time for Pacific Island migrants who had been welcomed to New Zealand 10-20 years earlier to fulfil a labour shortage, only to then be unfairly profiled and singled out as New Zealands’ economy began to suffer. In the dawn raids of the late 1970’s - early 1980’s, police forces inflicted trauma and terror as they callously invaded homes of sleeping families. 

Throughout his childhood, my father and his family moved and lived in multiple homes in Otara. My father experienced this trauma multiple times at a young age - four state houses he lived in were raided at dawn. Each sculpture is a memorial of the homes he once lived in, paying tribute to the resilience of not only my father, but also of the Polynesian people who wanted nothing more than to make a better life for their families.'

Names of the features works (left to right)

Baird Road, Otara, 5 April 2016 -Plaster mould/transferred image, 44cm x 35 cm

Baird road #2, 15 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 49 x 50 cm

Julian Road #2, 7 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 45 cm x 33 cm

Julian road, Otara, 13 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 39 cm x 24 cm

[valasileotaseiuli]

Collection of four plaster works featured in the Yours to tell exhibition at RM Gallery on Wednesday 6 August 2016. Below is the artist blurb with a description of the works from the show.

'The mid 1970’s was a distressing time for Pacific Island migrants who had been welcomed to New Zealand 10-20 years earlier to fulfil a labour shortage, only to then be unfairly profiled and singled out as New Zealands’ economy began to suffer. In the dawn raids of the late 1970’s - early 1980’s, police forces inflicted trauma and terror as they callously invaded homes of sleeping families. 

Throughout his childhood, my father and his family moved and lived in multiple homes in Otara. My father experienced this trauma multiple times at a young age - four state houses he lived in were raided at dawn. Each sculpture is a memorial of the homes he once lived in, paying tribute to the resilience of not only my father, but also of the Polynesian people who wanted nothing more than to make a better life for their families.'

Names of the features works (left to right)

Baird Road, Otara, 5 April 2016 -Plaster mould/transferred image, 44cm x 35 cm

Baird road #2, 15 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 49 x 50 cm

Julian Road #2, 7 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 45 cm x 33 cm

Julian road, Otara, 13 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 39 cm x 24 cm

[valasileotaseiuli]

Collection of four plaster works featured in the Yours to tell exhibition at RM Gallery on Wednesday 6 August 2016. Below is the artist blurb with a description of the works from the show.

'The mid 1970’s was a distressing time for Pacific Island migrants who had been welcomed to New Zealand 10-20 years earlier to fulfil a labour shortage, only to then be unfairly profiled and singled out as New Zealands’ economy began to suffer. In the dawn raids of the late 1970’s - early 1980’s, police forces inflicted trauma and terror as they callously invaded homes of sleeping families. 

Throughout his childhood, my father and his family moved and lived in multiple homes in Otara. My father experienced this trauma multiple times at a young age - four state houses he lived in were raided at dawn. Each sculpture is a memorial of the homes he once lived in, paying tribute to the resilience of not only my father, but also of the Polynesian people who wanted nothing more than to make a better life for their families.'

Names of the features works (left to right)

Baird Road, Otara, 5 April 2016 -Plaster mould/transferred image, 44cm x 35 cm

Baird road #2, 15 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 49 x 50 cm

Julian Road #2, 7 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 45 cm x 33 cm

Julian road, Otara, 13 April 2016 - Plaster/transferred image, 39 cm x 24 cm