Category: Exhibitions

Artwork for Sale, Conferences, Exhibitions

Art without industry; shifting contexts for creative work

The first quarter of 2025 has been busy and inspiring. In January, a commissioned artwork for Auckland University Press was finalised and delivered; it will be the cover of an upcoming book full of inspiring writing by Moana Oceania / Pacific scholars and I can’t wait to see this textile form translate to print. Click here to learn more and pre-order!

The artwork, entitled “Na wasawasa e vamatana, na wasawasa e veisemati – Oceans have eyes, Oceans connect us all” (2025) is a textile assemblage featuring a border of 253 triangles, and measures 1185x1260mm.

In January, I also momentarily transformed Vunilagi Vou – the creative studio – back to Vunilagi Vou, the Gallery, in a strange re-imagined backwards forwards step. Having closed gallery operations in 2023, the site of the gallery had been well and truly transformed to a working studio, but the yellow wall remained.

For Auckland-based Fijian writer-director, Tulia Thompson, Vunilagi Vou’s original site in Ōtāhuhu and its iconic yellow wall played a role in the vision for her first short film entitled Latui. It was such a pleasure to work with Tulia and her producer partner Craig Parkes to weave Vunilagi Vou into the making of this important film, bringing a strong degree of authenticity to this re-imagining of Vunilagi Vou. I loved staging a curated exhibition and the paintings of Mel Aluesi were not only a gorgeous pleasure to encounter and handle, but perfectly aligned with the film’s storyline.

Tulia and Craig bought together an impressive cast and crew including Fijian lead actress Nicole Whippy, art director Tapuaki Helu with assistance from Litia Tuiburelevu, and Vunilagi Vou’s excellent community of supporting cast including Mel Aluesi, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Tanu Gago, Craig Horne, Barbara Morgan, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai, Akesiumeimoana and Meleseini Tuai.

The film is needing a last push to get it over the finish line so Tulia and Craig are currently crowdfunding to raise funds to finish the film. Donations big and small are welcomed here, and check out more about the project and some beautiful film stills here:

It was a pleasure to work with Mel Aluesi again in their first Life Drawing class presented for Auckland Pride in February. Mel facilitated an excellent session and it was a pleasure to sit as a life model and observe the ways they held space for the act of drawing and responding to the Oceanic form. I would love to work with Mel on more life drawing projects… the seed has been planted!

Two heavy hitter events in February got my heart and mind going on all cylinders. Lagi-Maama Academy & Consultancy hosted a very special gathering at Māngere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku dedicated to the important work and visionary leadership of Tongan scholar, Professor Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu Dr ‘Okusitino Māhina.

Kātoanga’i ‘o Tā-Vā: Celebrating a living legacy of Tā-Vā Time-Space was a perfect symposium. Professor Maui-TāVā-He-Ako Dr Tēvita O. Ka’ili delivered an excellent keynote on the historical timeline of Tāvāism from its earliest articulation to a consideration of how AI and ChatGPT might be harnessed as a tool for dissemination and explanation of the Tongan philosophy of time-space reality. Through other speakers I was reminded of all the ways Hūfanga has broadened my own thinking about art and harmony, chaos and beauty, symmetry and balance.

In an impressive display of Lagi-Maama’s publication projects since its inception, directors Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai and Toluma’anave Barbara Makuati-Afitu exemplified the power of publishing, to which Hūfanga later noted, “We need to own the knowledge, and the means, and the knowledge and skills to manage both, or suffer and suffocate by the politics of the process.” 

In February, Auckland-based illustrator Marc Conaco and I attended the W.E.R.O conference at the University of Waikato in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. In the absence of our project lead, Dr Sereana Naepi, Marc and I discussed our collaborative project UN/SEEN: Pacific experiences in higher education in the University’s stunning wharenui, Ko Te Tangata.

Three days of talking about racism and anti-racism was simultaneously inspiring and uplifting, triggering, infuriating and heartbreaking. It was lovely to spend time with the incredibly talented and inspiring Marc Conaco, unpacking, thinking and critiquing our positionality as creatives sitting on the periphery of these academic spaces.

The keynotes felt like beacons of light, and Canadian scholar Jeffrey Ansloos was an amazing start. I’m still thinking about hope as a praxis and ways of building and blocking to create the conditions to make change possible. Mohan Dutta’s discussion of ‘voice infrastructure’ gave me new language to think about my creative practice and its politics. I loved thinking about how stories disrupt power, and when centring love and centring joy can be disruptive practices of resistance. Both Marc and I resonated deeply with Chelsea Watego’s invigorating keynote and I appreciated so much the acknowledgment of how racism exists in anti-racist spaces. Deep respect to Papua New Guinean scholar Nathan Rew for demanding freedom for West Papua in this space, over and over again, assertively positioning Melanesia into this discourse on racism and anti-racism being considered here in Aotearoa.

In March, I loved watching the thoroughly impressive large-scale mural of the late Fa’anānā Efeso Collins (1974-2024) being painted in Manukau City by Charles and Janine Williams. It’s still emotional thinking of the loss of Efeso’s giant influence but seeing his face appear in such photorealistic splendour was incredibly moving. I love seeing him every time I drive through Manukau City.

With more misses than hits happening in the arts funding and opportunities space, alternative revenue streams are becoming more life-blood and less alternative. Making textile salusalu (Fijian garlands) is something I’m still enjoying; they are stocked exclusively at Celebrate Aotearoa in Glen Innes, East Auckland and this new page has more information about customisations and group orders – check it out.

For this month’s Global Pacific Solutions conference produced by Le Va, a wellbeing and prevention NGO, I’ve had an opportunity to curate a small digital exhibition inspired by the themes of the Moana Dreaming plenary session. Whilst these works in digital form will only be shown during the plenary session, it was rewarding to assemble such a beautiful body of work. Artist profiles and artwork can be found here.

I’m interested in being at this conference because the arts sector for visual artists feels less and less accommodating, and somehow, more isolating and unsustainable than ever. Undertaking the Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge programme at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa has really helped ground my creative practice, stripping it back to its principles and values, an ethical compass I’ve probably always struggled to align with the arts sector.

Working on projects like UN/SEEN: Pacific experiences in higher education, I’ve been able to see where creative thinking and practice can add value to projects that sit outside of the traditional scope of the ‘arts’, and further, what creative work looks like in service to the broader socio-economic and socio-political development of Moana Oceania / Pacific people. In the case of the Global Pacific Solutions conference, I’m interested in thinking about where creative work can add value to broader contexts of addiction, suicide, mental health and wellbeing. Gratitude to Marina Alefosio for enabling this opportunity.

In the meantime, I’m making lots of things for the Celebrate Aotearoa May Pop-Up Market on Saturday 3 May – come through for bunting, mini banners, salusalu and more! Celebrate Aotearoa is a Pacific-owned and operated retail space located at 3/260 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes, East Auckland.

Upcoming projects include a trip home to Suva, Fiji – the first return in six years, more exciting work with Dr Sereana Naepi and Dr Marcia Leenen-Young at the University of Auckland, new content and developments on kaidravuni.com, and a deepening rangahau (research) journey stemming from last year’s Solesolevaki exhibition!

vinaka vakalevu

Exhibitions, Talanoa

2024 and grief

On the first day of the new year, it feels appropriate to reflect. 2024 felt mostly like a blur with some moments of clarity, and joy. Deaths of friends and people known and networked together felt like a terrible rhythm of 2024. Grief wakes up grief; my year was fairly discombobulated.

It was an unexpected path to become friends with Fa’anānā Efeso Collins. Whilst we had crossed paths through Ōtara and local government, it wasn’t until 2022 that I got to know his charismatic leadership, wicked humour and heart for his family, for service and communities here in South Auckland. Committing time, energy and love into his campaign and pathway to Parliament was a journey of learning, and faith. On the day before his maiden speech, my daughter and I made a pilgrimage to the capital, reflecting all the way on this momentous, unbelievable thing: to see a friend reach such an important career high, and take his whole community with him.

Efeso’s tragic and untimely death less than a week later took the wind out of so many people. The pain and grief for his closest family, his beloved wife and daughters, is still simply inconceivable. The loss of him, his drive and strategic brain, his intellect, cultural literacy and oratory prowess, is part of the grief for Efeso, but it was also so tragically the loss of his potential and the contribution he was primed to make for New Zealand politics and society. He was a shining light, a portal.

The grief for Efeso felt like a flood. I caught Covid in the flood, and then a few weeks later, my dear friend Yolande Ah Chong lost her battle with cancer. Being able to say good bye to Yolande in hospice care felt like a gift, but the grief and deep sadness was still overwhelming.

Efeso and Yolande were both amazing supporters of my work; Yolande and I had worked together since 2010 and through every one of Vunilagi Vou’s shapeshifts, she made time to visit, listen, advocate and amplify in whatever way she could. But in the case of both Efeso and Yolande, what they gave me over our friendships was the privilege to know their fierce intellects, and capacities for deep and powerful analysis and cutting critique.

Other untimely deaths in the following months; Sam Morrison in May, Reina Sutton in July – both artists who served with their whole hearts. Our creative communities felt and heaved in love with the weight of their lives and the pain of their deaths; too short, too tragic.

In these waves of sadness, tears and tragedy, two exhibitions were staged in 2024. To Live + Die in South Auckland at Fresh Gallery Ōtara in May-June and Solesolevaki at Tautai Gallery in October-November. One felt like an ending, and the latter like a beginning. Studying towards a Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge degree has helped me move through my awkward dance with the ‘art world’ and the opportunity to make an exhibition for Tautai enabled me to flex some new thinking. I really loved discussing the show with Pacific Media Network reporter, Atutahi Potaka-Dewes here, and I am deeply grateful for my family, who stepped all the way up to deliver a very special project.

photo by jesse marsters / courtesy of tautai trust

I also had opportunities to travel to Chicago, Melbourne and Toronto in 2024, being a consultant/advisor, an artist-curator facilitator and a discussant for aabaakwad – a deeply inspiring gathering of indigenous artists, writers and curators designed and delivered by Wanda Nanibush. Each adventure had moments of joy; I’m so grateful for the opportunities afforded to me to expand my horizons through talanoa and knowledge co-creation.

Through ongoing and always inspiring work with Dr Sereana Naepi, I’ve been able to contribute to a special project called UN/SEEN with artist and designer, Marc Conaco. The project enabled the opportunity for us to present at the International Indigenous Research Conference in Tāmaki Makaurau in November, and Marc and I are excited to present in February 2025 at WERO: Working to End Racial Oppression International Conference.

Vunilagi Vou has been operational as a creative studio in 2024. To be able to make, experiment, express grief and write, has been vital in a year that was pickled in sadness. Making salusalu (Fijian garlands) has bought me a lot of joy, and relief. Seeing this big order for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited being worn at the Auckland Pacific Economic Insights Series event in October was lovely.

Gratitude also for artist and entrepreneur Czarina Wilson, who has continued to offer Vunilagi Vou the opportunity to pop-up at her space Celebrate Aotearoa in Glen Innes, East Auckland. With now three consecutive declined funding applications from Creative New Zealand in 2023/24, every opportunity to generate revenue is important and highly valued. The last decline was perhaps the roughest one to stomach in my career in the creative arts; artist and writer Natasha Matila-Smith sums up some very familiar emotions about funding rejections here.

So, with an exciting commission currently in the works, and a special opportunity to re-stage Vunilagi Vou circa 2019 for a short film project in January, I’m moving softly into 2025. Grief is ever-present, revealing new depths of being, knowing, loving and longing. A creative life is both an opportunity to soothe the pain of grieving and a heightened state of feeling the accumulative depths of grief and love that fortify our lives.

Rest in Love and Power Efeso, Yolande, Reina and Sam.

Artwork for Sale, Events, Exhibitions, VV First Fridays

A mild wintery update from Vunilagi Vou!

To Live + Die in South Auckland was an exhibition that lived and died at Fresh Gallery Ōtara. It was an eye-opening and sadly, heartbreaking experience, but still a milestone.

  • Check out a full archive of exhibition photography by Sam Harnett here and photos from the opening by Sait Akkirman for Arts Diary here.

Making an exhibition for Fresh Gallery Ōtara felt important, like a full-circle moment taking me back to where my curatorial practice began, and inhabiting the space as an artist. My dear friend Nigel Borell filled in some of the curatorial gaps of producing this show, and is credited as ‘Curator Tautoko’, a term we devised to perhaps describe what it is when two artist-curators muddle around wearing different hats!

With Nigel Borell in front of Southside Calling (2024)

My favourite times during the exhibition involved talanoa and connection with people looking at and beyond the work on the walls. Those who travelled from far and wide to help open the exhibition blew me away; I was overwhelmed with love and support.

I also loved the opportunity to discuss my practice for the Arts Out East 2024 dialogue series, the Art of Conversation curated by Felixe Laing. Artists are invited to nominate a local eatery to hold an artist talk in, and whilst I have some firm favourite spots here in the South-Eastside, most of them have got small spaces with limited seating. So, I nominated Columbus Cafe at the Botany Mitre10 Mega, which has a massive window looking out at Puke-i-Āki-Rangi, a former Pā site on a magnificent hill covered in native bush in what is known as East Tāmaki Heights.

Photo by Stacey Leilua.

The public programme events at Fresh Gallery Ōtara during the exhibition were supported by Ōtara Papatoetoe Local Board. In my artist talk held in May, someone who has been familiar with my practice as a gallerist and curator for many years, commented that it was like I was ‘coming out as a Fijian’, which made me giggle. The comment reminded me how little of myself I bought to the act of working in service to other artists.

Photo by Nigel Borell.

Cultivating my own voice as an artist has been a bold step towards being known, being seen. In the second public programme event, we set up a drop-in collage making space, building page works and revealing stories of ourselves. I loved it so much, especially reconnecting with local artist and activist, Monica Fa’a’lavaau.

The third public programme event was a Fresh Gallery Ōtara witness seminar, an event format I had learned about from visiting Swedish curator, Maria Lind. At Tensta Konsthall, a Stockholm gallery where she was Director, they held witness seminars to understand and archive more about the social histories of the building and environment the gallery inhabited.

I put together a panel of speakers for the Can I get a witness? event we held at Fresh Gallery Ōtara on 7 June, each chosen to help build a story of social impact, innovation and creativity generation from Fresh Gallery Ōtara’s first chapter from 2006-2012. From artists who made shows at the gallery during that time to perspectives from Manukau School of Visual Arts (later MIT Faculty of Creative Arts) from Grant Thompson, and Nicole Lim, the gallery’s longest serving gallery assistant and later gallery coordinator.

(L-R) Tanu Gago, Nigel Borell, Nicole Lim, Vasemaca Tavola, Grant Thompson, Leilani Kake and Czarina Wilson.

It was a gorgeous night of storytelling, reflection and deep acknowledgement of the time and space we had all shared in what felt like Fresh Gallery Ōtara’s golden age. It was also the last official ‘VV First Fridays’ event, which focused on talanoa and opportunities for Moana Pacific artists to connect. Vinaka vakalevu to Creative New Zealand for supporting that event series.

I’ve really enjoyed building an archive of writing and commentary on Patreon and growing a community of patrons committed to small monthly donations to support my practice. I’ve enjoyed sharing insights into my creative thinking and planning, inspirations and seeing the value system of my practice reveal itself in the process. Returning to my art practice has been the most wonderfully rewarding decision of my life.

On Patreon, I share a mix of content for paid members, content for free members, and content accessible by non-members. This is the lastest post accessible by anyone:

If supporting my work is something you’re interested in doing, this is a great way to make easy donations. There are two membership tiers at present:

Outside of my art practice, I’ve been working on a project with Dr Sereana Naepi and illustrator, Marc Conaco for a year now – this is us on 2 July 2023! Good things take time, patience and dedication. It is such an immense privilege to be working alongside the eye-wateringly talented Marc Conaco and the academic leadership of Dr Sereana Naepi! So much exciting news to share in the coming months!

I’m currently re-thinking the Vunilagi Vou showroom and returning a lot of work I’ve held over Vunilagi Vou’s tumultuous five years as an on-again-off-again gallery space. Like many in the retail / small business space, attracting sales and spending in the nice-to-have market is pretty rough-going in this economic climate.

With a room to play with, that’s separate from the studio, I’ve had the chance to hang and present my own work, playing with context and story.

I made a series of Fijian salusalu (garlands) for the witness seminar at Fresh Gallery Ōtara and really loved the process. Synthetic felt is such a fun, malleable material, and the colour combinations give me such an energy boost! I wrote about the process on Patreon here (paid content, apologies!) and I’m now making these on a commission basis.

Nigel Borell was at the Venice Biennale when we opened To Live + Die in South Auckland in May, so my sister Mereia read his small speech:

I’ve thought a lot about life and death over the last few months, making and presenting this show, but Nigel reminded me about the absolutely intoxicating energy of re-birth, an energy that has fuelled Vunilagi Vou since 2019!

In May, the fifth anniversary of Vunilagi Vou quietly rolled around. The show at Fresh Gallery Ōtara absorbed any energy for celebration. I had spent the previous day making a one-day-painting to exercise support for the national day of activation called by Te Pāti Māori to stand solidly in support of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and our obligations as Tangata Tiriti. And then on 31 May, exactly fives years since Vunilagi Vou first opened in Ōtāhuhu, I watched the sun rise behind Puke-i-Āki-Rangi here in East Tāmaki, where Vunilagi Vou has lived, died and been re-born.

Grateful for patrons, supporters… those who are still moved by art histories and storytelling, and those who have the means to keep supporting art and artists, in recession times.

vinaka vakalevu

Events, Exhibitions

An invitation and a milestone

Making a solo exhibition for Fresh Gallery Ōtara after a determined commitment to quit curating in late 2023 has been a curious act.

I’ve loved the process of transforming the Vunilagi Vou gallery into a functional working studio. Without this transformed space and time commitment to making art rather than exhibitions, I wouldn’t have been able to produce the work I’ve made.

2022 / 2024

To Live + Die in South Auckland is a significant show, because Fresh Gallery Ōtara was a significant part of my life and practice. I spent six and half years working on the Fresh Gallery Ōtara kaupapa between 2006 and 2012, and made 66 shows during that time. Fresh Gallery Ōtara was a space where local and indigenous artists found community, confidence and support, and through that work / service, I gradually found confidence in my own voice.

Three years after opening Fresh, I made my first solo, BLOOD+BONE (2009), but didn’t make another solo for eight more years. Entitled Dark Meat (2017), this second solo continued the bodily theme, and was followed five years later by Backbone (2022). This was perhaps a trilogy, because the show I’ve made for Fresh feels different, less internalised and bound by the confines of my body, more… free.

This exhibition has been purposefully programmed as Fresh Gallery Ōtara’s 18th anniversary show. It was devised to reflect significant moments of life and death that I’ve encountered in my time living here since 2002, specifically, moments that have anchored me to this space, where I’ve evolved, mentally and spiritually. The show was pitched as a site-specific narrative that would engage and confront local audiences, and expand thinking about the social, cultural and political landscape of South Auckland. I drew poetically on this idea of American poet, novelist, and literary critic, Robert Penn Warren, who says:

You live through that little piece of time that is yours, but that piece of time is not only your own life, it is the summing-up of all the other lives that are simultaneously with yours… What you are is an expression of history.

Managing the development of the exhibition from what was proposed, like a curator, and then producing the work, as an artist, has been a unique form of psychological chaos! These two positions – one making a show, the other making the artwork – have formed a constant dialogue in my head for the past five months. So, I am deeply grateful to peers who have offered critical feedback and discussion, and to my friend, Nigel Borell, who is acknowledged as Curator Tautoko for the show.

To lean in to being an artist has felt liberating and powerful, but the act of curating, feels significantly necessary and what Fresh Gallery Ōtara and her local audiences deserve. To Live + Die in South Auckland is a show that was made site-specifically, as a full-circle, symbolic return.

Please join us to celebrate the opening of
To Live + Die in South Auckland

WHEN: 10.30am, Saturday 4 May
WHERE: Fresh Gallery Ōtara, 5/46 Fairmall, Ōtara Town Centre, South Auckland
EXHIBITION DATES: 4 May – 15 June 2024

If you can’t make the opening – a morning affair – here are some cool opportunities to come and learn more about the show:

  • I’ll be discussing the exhibition in an Artist Floor Talk at Fresh Gallery Ōtara on Saturday 11 May from 2-3.30pm – free and open to the public.
  • On Friday 17 May, I’ve nominated Columbus Cafe in Mitre10 Botany as a local East Auckland spot to hold a relaxed artist talk courtesy of Arts Out East! Kicking off at 10.30am, come along and learn why the Mitre10 garden centre has become my happy place! All welcome, more info here.
  • Although the collage works in the exhibition are digital, on Saturday 18 May from 10am-12pm, I’ll be running a paper collage workshop space in the gallery, using an eclectic range of found images to create new meanings – all ages and abilities, all welcome, open to the public.
  • On Friday 7 June, my excellent Curator Tautoko Nigel Borell and I will be convening a panel of lively storytelling in Can I get a witness? – A Fresh Gallery Ōtara Witness Seminar! Loosly borrowing the format of a witness seminar, this DIY version brings together artists and community members who were part of the gallery’s early years in what promises to be an evening of tall tales and hazy memories! Join us from 7-9pm – doors open at 6.30pm – all welcome.

Vinaka vakalevu for those who have followed the Vunilagi Vou journey since 2019. Some may have noticed that Fresh Gallery Ōtara’s anniversary is also the same timeframe of Vunilagi Vou’s anniversary. Fresh Gallery Ōtara was opened on May 26, 2006, and Vunilagi Vou was opened on May 31, 2019; the opening of Vunilagi Vou was an intentional alignment, a continuum of practice and service.

2006 with Leisa Siteine | 2019 opening Vunilagi Vou in Ōtāhuhu

To Live + Die in South Auckland is Vunilagi Vou’s 5th anniversary, a symbolic return, a beginning and an end – a perfect manifestation of the vunilagi.

Exhibitions, Talanoa, VV First Fridays

Muscle Memory, an art history of South Auckland

Muscle Memory – the last exhibition in Vunilagi Vou’s season of solos – opened last week with a beautiful gathering of friends, family and supporters of Genevieve Pini’s practice.

Photo by Leela Bhai
Photo by Leela Bhai
Photo by Leela Bhai
Photo by Anthony Pini
Photo by Anthony Pini
Photo by Anthony Pini

Muscle Memory features new work alongside archival pieces dating back to 2002. In an installation combining two eras of her practice, Pini presents her 2002 textile works made from cloth used to wipe the blood and ink from her father’s tatau with a 29 meter long red ribbon lei (garland) that she started making at the beginning of 2023. The installation configures the works on three mannequins – one male, one female and one clear form in between them. The opportunity to combine older and newer work reflects Pini’s ongoing enquiry into the experience and responsibilities of wearing her customary marks (tattoo) and the bonds across genealogy that never fade.

In a newer suite of works, Pini has brought a fascination in superhero capes to life. Interested in the idea of being from South Auckland as a super power, her three concept capes reference the exuberant displays of island origins and flag pride, school as a source of connection, belonging and community, and a darkness that is perhaps an inextricable part of South Auckland’s super power.

Starting in 2001, Manukau City Council (amalgamated into Auckland Council in 2010) produced a much loved design competition and runway show called Cult Couture. The homegrown annual event generated a community and culture amongst local artists where concepts like Pini’s capes were frequently presented, building a picture over the years of quintessential South Auckland / Manukau style and aesthetic. Pini herself entered numerous times, placed and won in 2007; she later styled some of her entries into an editorial for SOUTH magazine in 2012.

Photography by Vinesh Kumaran

Muscle Memory is Pini’s first solo exhibition, and considers a practice that has quietly spanned two decades, from an era that included four years at Manukau School of Visual Arts and the experience of being tattooed with her customary marks, to the Cult Couture era, and her more recent practice of figurative self portraiture. Throughout her work, Pini’s interest in print and meditative processes endures.

Learn more about the artist and her South Auckland super powers this Friday for an Artist Talanoa – doors open at 6pm, all welcome!

Muscle Memory is Vunilagi Vou’s last programmed exhibition. Vunilagi Vou – the gallery – has seen 19 exhibitions produced and presented since June 2019. It has been fun! And challenging! And it’s time for a rest.

From 2024, Vunilagi Vou – the gallery – will operate as a studio for creative projects and occasional gatherings. The stockroom and retail space will remain open as a unique repository of small and large works, limited edition prints and a bespoke retail range, and Vunilagi Vou’s consultancy work, writing and publishing will absorb new energy and focus.

Muscle Memory is open until Saturday 10 December, outside of opening hours, appointments can be made any time by getting in touch via email, or here.

vinaka vakalevu

Community, Events, Exhibitions

Vunilagi Vou: A Spring Update

Spring was welcomed perfectly at Vunilagi Vou with Niu Lemalu’s solo exhibition, Let’s Play Outside, a suite of six new paintings made throughout 2023 with support of the Two Solos crowdfunding effort of late 2022. The exhibition’s opening in late August launched Vunilagi Vou’s revised and necessarily re-scheduled public programme after an unplanned hiatus in June/July.

Let’s Play Outside is Niu Lemalu’s second solo exhibition after his first 13 years ago at Fresh Gallery Ōtara. In this body of large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas and board, Lemalu has experimented with different painterly perspectives and techniques in studies of obscure internet meme culture and the virally bizarre.

Hasbulla’s Katon (2023), 1100x800mm, acrylic on board

Visitors to this exhibition have been painting enthusiasts, those intrigued with Lemalu’s obscure internet interests, and Vunilagi Vou supporters keen to see and experience a room full of new paintings made here in South Auckland.

For Niu Lemalu works available in the Vunilagi Vou Stockroom – get in touch for a works list.

In July, I delivered a paper entitled, Holding space for decolonisation in South Auckland at the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Arts Educators (ANZAAE) Conference in Wellington, check it out here:

Also in July, I had the opportunity to visit Tonga-based artists Serene Tay and Visesio Siasau, who are building an incredible space for Moana Pacific art and talanoa in Haveluloto. It was the most inspiring two weeks of deep dives into Tonga-Fiji histories and connections, Lapita pottery, curating and holding space, socio-political dynamics of art and arts appreciation, galleries and gallery culture. I am deeply grateful and can’t wait to return in 2024!

It was a privilege to speak at two Moana Oceania Pacific art exhibition openings in September; Alteration by FAFSWAG at Māngere Arts Centre, and Straight from the Horse’s Mouth by Czarina Wilson at Celebrate Aotearoa in Glen Innes, East Auckland.

Alteration is a 10 year retrospective of the award-winning collective, FAFSWAG, symbolically delivered in South Auckland, where their story began. As I noted in my speech, this 10 year milestone is testament to FAFSWAG’s awe-inspiring dedication and continuous commitment to improving our world. Not just for Pride Festivals, or as commissioned entertainment at art industry events, not just in art and exhibitions, but as a continuously visible, active community of care and change-making. FAFSWAG has evolved our world. It was a privilege to speak alongside my dear friend and fellow South Auckland-based artist-curator, Nigel Borell to help open this important exhibition that runs until 28 October 2023.

Photo by Sam Hartnett

Tongan artist and creative entrepreneur Czarina Wilson made a beautiful solo exhibition to mark the first anniversary of her gift shop, Celebrate Aotearoa in its current site on Apirana Avenue in Glen Innes. Celebrate Aotearoa is an amazing retail environment that also holds space for workshops, pop-ups and gatherings.

Having taken a small hiatus from making to get Celebrate Aotearoa off the ground, Czarina Wilson returned to her practice to make a new body of work expanding on her signature style of woven textiles, appliqué and couture statement-wear. Straight from the Horse’s Mouth explores the quilting technique known in Tongan as monomono pani, a form of puffer patchwork that lends itself beautifully to geometric design. Observed and learned from the matriarchs of Wilson’s famili, this quilting technique is used to make blankets and bedspreads that become koloa – items of cultural value gifted and received within the Tongan community.

Central to this body of work is a three-piece collection originally made for the 2023 Hokonui Fashion Awards. Produced after a break from fashion design, the collection represented a triumphant return to the catwalk after almost a decade. The garments are detail-driven, labour-intensive, and hark back to Wilson’s passion for urban Polynesian streetwear and popular culture.

The two wall works in this exhibition speak to the ways the artform of monomono connects across generations, from the cradle to the grave. They remind us that blankets hold us and wrap around us, make us feel safe, and protected. Fabrics carry story, memory, sensory nostalgia; they exist next to our skin, absorbing our tears, fears and energy. 

It was another privilege to speak and write about another Moana Oceania Pacific art practice that I’ve appreciated for such a long time.

This month, I’ve been busy making artwork again as a recipient of Tautai Trust’s annual Fale-Ship residency programme:

https://fb.watch/nFE1y5iPr5/

More about the outcome of this small residency opportunity coming soon.

And later on this month, we open our last exhibition for 2023, Muscle Memory – a solo exhibition by Genevieve Pini!

Muscle Memory will take Vunilagi Vou’s programme out for 2023. It has been a rocky year with an unplanned closure, a stop-start momentum, and losing out on multiple applications for Creative New Zealand arts grant investment. As a result, 2024 will bring around another neccessary shapeshift.

More to say, watch this space.

vinaka vakalevu

Exhibitions

MUSCLE MEMORY – A solo exhibition by Genevieve Pini

In the last solo exhibition of this year’s ‘Season of Solos’, Ōtara-based artist Genevieve Pini presents a body of new work that has been on a slow-boil for two decades.

Muscle Memory is the outcome of Vunilagi Vou’s BoostedxMoana crowdfunding effort from late 2022. The project saw two South Auckland artists – Niu Lemalu and Genevieve Pini – develop solo exhibition exhibitions throughout 2023, and show for the first time at the Aotearoa Art Fair.

Genevieve Pini’s visual arts practice draws on training in photography, jewellery, print and textiles. Whilst studying at Manukau School of Visual Arts in Ōtara, Pini received her malu (customary Sāmoan female tattoo), an experience and visual vocabulary that has had an enduring impact on her life and work. Blood, bloodlines and genealogical connection have carried through much of her making, often employing the colour red and in some works, the actual material used to wipe blood and ink from her tattoos.

Courtesy of Genevieve Pini
Courtesy of Genevieve Pini

Interested in meditative processes, adornment and making as a mode of cultural transmission, Pini has exhibited in group exhibitions since 2004, often reflecting on the idea of protection, strength and the everyday ways that Sāmoa is present in people, ritual, time and space.

Muscle Memory is Pini’s first solo exhibition, a significant and daunting project. The process of development has involved lengthy talanoa about what experiences in our lives form memory, and how those memories are held in our bodies, actions and behaviours. The title also speaks to Pini’s active dedication to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a wellbeing practice that conditions her body and mind.

Vunilagi Vou is proud to present Muscle Memory to close out the 2023 programme.

Please join us for the Muscle Memory exhibition opening from 6-9pm on Wednesday 25 October 2023.

Events, Exhibitions

BACKBONE kicks off a season of solos at Vunilagi Vou x East Tāmaki

As we approach our 4th anniversary, remembering every anniversary has in fact been within the Covid-19 pandemic and aftermath, it’s a pleasure to present the 2023 programme for Vunilagi Vou x East Tāmaki.

This fourth site of Vunilagi Vou, officially opened in August 2022, has been a flexible, evolving space. It has taken time to work out how to operate here and what this gallery space needs… it has taken time to recalibrate after a period of spacelessness in early 2022, and it has taken time to find resource from contestable funding programmes. There have been some hits, some misses, but each time, the needle has shifted again on what is possible here.

In late 2022, a grant was secured from Creative New Zealand to research and develop a solo exhibition – my own! It was the first time I have applied for and secured investment for my individual art practice. My project started with the concept of vanua from a Fijian perspective – “Fijian interconnectedness inclusive of culture, chiefs, knowledge systems, relationships, values, land, and spiritualities” (Fijian Vanua Research Framework definition, here). I was and continue to be interested in the shifting dynamics of being Tangata Moana / Tangata Tiriti in Aotearoa and the comfort/discomfort of being an indigenous settler on land violated by ongoing colonial violence.

Through extensive talanoa with Kaliopate Tavola, my father and Head of Mataqali Navusalevu, the second Mataqali in Dravuni Village in Kadavu, Fiji, the project became anchored in a visual exploration of what is known as Lapita pottery. Like footprints of ancestors, this pottery practice maps time, space and connections across Oceania, its decorative patterning a kind of DNA for visual vocabularies we use to this day. This early exploration of Lapita pottery also coincided with a chance reconnection with Tonga-based artist Serene Tay; conversations about pottery, healing, gallery building and spirituality with Serene between Wellington and South Auckland were pivotal – I’m so thankful our paths crossed like they did.

Experimenting in clay
Ema + Serene Tay, Wellington, November 2022
Talanoa with Kaliopate Tavola, Paekākāriki, November 2022

The grant from Creative New Zealand offered me time and space to dive deeper and expand my thinking and experimental making. The gallery became a shared studio space, I returned to working with textiles and painting on loose canvas – approaches I had used as a young artist moving from Suva, Fiji to South Auckland. I’ve loved making work again, finding resolutions through assembling and mark-making, arriving at understanding through quiet contemplation.

Phallus Palace (2001)
Colour Me Fiji Sulu Project (2005)
Identity Complex Identity (2006)
Regionalism (2009)

I use the title ‘artist-curator’ as a nod to the Cook Islands curator, Jim Vivieaere (1947-2011), who was a mentor and groundbreaker for Moana Pacific curatorial practice. I’ve long asserted that my curatorial work is an extension of my visual arts practice, but this exhibition project has reminded me that curating is a collective, outward practice, creating an identity statement with many parts, and facilitating the ways and means that statement is delivered and received. Being an artist is, in my experience, deeply introspective, a practice of trying to understand where individual experience fits within a wider collective experience.

I’ve so enjoyed remembering the ‘artist’ part of being an artist-curator.

My solo exhibition, BACKBONE is a body of new paintings and textile assemblages.

Racism is Tiring (2023) | Textile assemblage | 900x1420mm

BACKBONE kicks off a season of solo shows at Vunilagi Vou here in East Tāmaki.

In late June, Papatoetoe-based painter, Niu Lemalu presents his second solo exhibition, Let’s Play Outide and in August, Ōtara-based interdisciplinary artist, Genevieve Pini presents her highly anticipated first solo, Muscle Memory.

Please help us to kick off a season of solos!

BACKBONE opens with a Private View / Opening on Thursday 27 April from 6-9pm and then runs until 10 June 2023.

Vunilagi Vou is open Thursday – Saturday from 10am – 2pm, and by appointment. Parking is available outside the main gate.

Vunilagi Vou is located at 14/15 Bishop Lenihan Place, East Tāmaki, South Auckland.

Community, Events, Exhibitions

#VVxET Open Day and South Auckland art history

On Saturday 27 August 2022, Vunilagi Vou’s newest site – VVxET – opens in East Tāmaki, South Auckland!

Instead of a traditional night time opening, VVxET will launch with an Open Day inviting the public to check out the new site, including the gorgeous stockroom and retail area, exhibition space and north-facing verandah!

VVxET is located on the edge of the Ōtara Stream

Tucked away at the back of the Botany South Business Estate at 15 Bishop Lenihan Place, East Tāmaki, the new Vunilagi Vou premises has a pretty fascinating whakapapa of art dealing and appreciation. Built in 2004, the owner of the building established the ground floor as a small art dealership called I Like Gallery. Run on an appointment-only basis, gallerist Richard Jeffery ONZM, designed a perfectly formed exhibition space with high spec lighting and clean sight lines. It was immediately obvious how good parties would have been in this space!

Of all the commercial leases in all of Manukau / South Auckland, it seems somewhat divinely guided that Vunilagi Vou has ended up here, in a ready-made gallery, on the edge of the Ōtara Stream just 3 kilometres away from Fresh Gallery Ōtara, where it all began 16 years ago!

Maka (2022), a mauri stone by Niuean artist, Chris van Doren

To launch the new exhibition space and ease back into exhibition-making after a 12 month hiatus, a collection of work has been assembled to represent Vunilagi Vou’s Moana Pacific arts community and two decades of professional practice and loving investment into Manukau / South Auckland art history.

The exhibition features recent and archival works by Nigel Borell, Ercan Cairns, Chris van Doren, Dr Sione Faletau, Antonio Filipo, Tanu Gago, Leilani Kake and Niutuiatua Lemalu.

Putiputi (2022) video still by Leilani Kake

The Vunilagi Vou stockroom is also full with works by Cypris Afakasi, David Garcia, Julia Mage’au Gray, Marcus Hipa, Rebecca Ann Hobbs & Huriana Kopeke-Te Aho, Sara Moana, Siliga David Setoga, Pati Solomona Tyrell, Manuha’apai Vaeatangitau and more!

The children’s book, The Legend of Tanovo and Tautaumolau by Kaliopate Tavola and Ema Tavola, in both English and Fijian, is now back in stock, alongside an eclectic collection of accessories, publications, patches and posters!

After this weekend’s Open Day, VVxET will be open Thursday to Saturday from 10am – 2pm, and by appointment.

VVxET Open Day is open to the public this Saturday 27 August from 10am until 6pm – all welcome!

Keep up to date on Vunilagi Vou activity via Instagram and Twitter.