New work by Ema Tavola
27 April – 10 June 2023
Listen to the accompanying playlist here.
Read more about the project here.
Consisting of a series of paintings and textile assemblages, Backbone is Ema Tavola’s third solo exhibition, and first staged on her adopted home ground of South Auckland. Informed by a series of discussions on the theme of whenua (Māori) / vanua (Fijian), Tavola’s intention was to discover ways and means of negotiating her positionality as Tangata Moana / Tangata Tiriti in Aotearoa, and the comfort/discomfort of being an indigenous settler on land violated by ongoing colonial violence.
Through talanoa with artists, thinkers, healers, activists and politicians, Tavola arrived at the connective tissue of Moana Oceania and the expansive migration of Austronesian peoples as evidenced through what is known as ‘Lapita’ pottery. The decorative patterning of this practice felt to Tavola like the DNA of visual culture that bonds and connects all descendants of Moana Oceania. The depth of that connection dwarfed and re-oriented the weight of the violence of colonialism that has in many ways dislocated the socio-relational connections between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Moana.
Tavola uses the symbolism of the fully formed ‘Lapita’ pot to visualise the intention of re-assembling broken connections. In archeological research, assembling shards of ‘Lapita’ pottery reveal patterns, codes and aesthetic art histories. The structural forms, functionality and geographic locations of ‘Lapita’ pottery represent depths of human histories and resilience, and reflect the knowledge systems and fortitude required for Ocean-faring migration across a third of the world’s surface. Across all the work in Backbone, Tavola references decorative patterns of ‘Lapita’ pottery in lines, dots, trim and abstracted as solid forms.
Like whenua, the concept of vanua from a Fijian perspective is not mutually transferrable in the English language; vanua is “Fijian interconnectedness inclusive of culture, chiefs, knowledge systems, relationships, values, land, and spiritualities” (Fijian Vanua Research Framework definition, here). The relationship and connection between indigenous people, collective identities and the natural environment – land, sea and sky – is inextricable. The large-scale painting, Surrender, features representations of the leaves, flowers and fruit of the Tavola tree (terminalia catappa), a family name passed down in Tavola’s paternal ancestry. When dislocated from ancestral geographies, living in diaspora and separated from the social mesh of being and knowing as an indigenous person, Tavola leans in to the small and powerful ports of connection that are carried forward in names, narratives, rituals and memories.
The exhibition’s title is Tavola’s position that the backbone is the physiological metaphor for whenua / vanua; fundamental, structural and essential for the wellbeing of indigenous people. The backbone is also the channel of connection between the body’s chakras or energy centres, another reference point in the full colour palette employed in Tavola’s paintings.
As an intuitive body of highly personal work, Tavola locates her own healing within a broader socio-political act of healing, and decolonisation as recovery. Backbone draws on the artist’s experience with understanding generational trauma, practising bodywork (yoga, meditation, breath work and rongoā Māori) and spirituality, and exploring the act of creative expression as a healing practice.
Backbone was produced with support from Pacific Arts programme funding from Creative New Zealand.
Ema Tavola (b.1982) is a Fijian-Pākehā artist-curator currently based in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Having established her painting practice in Suva, Fiji at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific, Tavola went on to study Sculpture at Manukau School of Visual Arts and later Arts Management at AUT University.
In 2019, she established an independent gallery and consultancy called Vunilagi Vou which continues to shapeshift in the pandemic climate. Whilst curating is an external, social practice for Tavola, artmaking and painting particularly is Tavola’s internal process of intellectual enquiry and creative meditation.
Solo Exhibitions
2023 – Backbone, Vunilagi Vou, Auckland
2017 – Dark Meat, Tautai, Auckland
2009 – BLOOD+BONE, St Kevin’s Arcade, Auckland
Awards
2017 – Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Artist Residency, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
2015 – Summer Residency, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Wellington
2014 – School of Art and Design Postgraduate Research Award, AUT University
2013 – Bachelor of Visual Arts Alumni Award, University of Auckland
2012 – Contemporary Pacific Artist, Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 – Moonwalkerz curated by Nigel Borell, Taste of Pasifika Festival, Auckland
2022 – Volume: Bodies of Knowlege by Community Reading Room curated by Dr Torika Bolatagici, Metro Arts, Queensland, Australia
2021 – Hidden in Plain Sight. From Being Rendered Invisible to Becoming Visible curated by Julia Albrecht and Stephanie Endter, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
2021 – Pussy Fat, Vunilagi Vou, South Auckland
2017 – Kaitaini, The Physics Room, Christchurch
2017 – The Perpetual Flux of Transitional Otherness, Olly, Auckland
2016 – Postcards from Papatoetoe : A Pop-up and pocket exhibition curated by Francis McWhannell, Old Papatoetoe, South Auckland
2011 – diasporadic679, Ōtāhuhu, South Auckland
2010 – FRESH10, Fresh Gallery Ōtara, South Auckland
2010 – 30 Ukulele, Village Arts, Hokianga
2009 – Flower Power, Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale (CRAA), Italy
2009 – Pan Pacific Nation curated by Jaimey Hamilton, The Arts at Marks Garage, Hawaii
2008 – VASU: Pacific Women of Power, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture & Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
2008 – Represent, Fresh Gallery Ōtara, South Auckland
2008 – Flat White Black Pearl curated by Jim Vivieaere, Te Karanga Gallery, Auckland
2007 – Longitude curated by Giles Peterson, The Art Studio, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
2007 – BUY SPEND SAVE NOW, Fresh Gallery Ōtara, South Auckland
2006 – What’s Going On, Fresh Gallery Ōtara, South Auckland
2006 – This is not a love song curated by Eimi Tamua, Artstation, Auckland
2005 – Destinations… curated by Lonnie Hutchinson, Pitt Street Methodist Church, Auckland
2004 – Five by Three, ArtNet Gallery, South Auckland
2004 – Niu Dialogue curated by Jim Vivieaere, Aotea Centre, Auckland
2001 – ANZ National Art Awards, The Playhouse, Suva, Fiji
2001 – Expressions on HIV/AIDS, Sexuality & Empowerment, AIDS Taskforce, Suva, Fiji
2001 – Red Wave Collective, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture & Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
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