It has taken a while to offer an update on Vunilagi Vou – six months has passed and Vunilagi Vou, the entity / platform / identity, has been in shapeshifting mode once again.
At the end of 2023, various factors, signs and reality checks led to the point of pivot. Vunilagi Vou was born nine months before the pandemic started shaking up the world in March 2020, and has been for the past four years in a state of constant flux, with some beautiful and profound highs, and deep lows.
Last year, I decided that the energy required to run, resource and amplify Vunilagi Vou’s gallery programme had been exhausted. I’ve been making exhibitions, designing and delivering public programmes to connect, talanoa and build community, since 2004. I had lost my passion for this work and had increasing discomfort with the dynamics of racial capitalism and increasing social inequality that underpin the arts economy in direct and indirect ways. But, I’m incredibly proud of what Vunilagi Vou held space for from 2019-2023, check out a summary of exhibitions here.
The calling to return to my art practice was getting stronger. I had worked fairly consistently for two decades in service to other artists, but buried my own voice in that pursuit. When I made a new body of work for the solo exhibition, Backbone in 2023, I had a re-awakening of my foundations as a visual artist. Needing to lean into this feeling required a shift in the balance of what Vunilagi Vou was, and could be.
Re-awakening my art practice, and the health scare that forced a major re-scheduling of the gallery programme last year, also created personal shifts for me. I decided to re-arrange my names, bringing forward my Fijian name – Vasemaca – which had been relegated into hiding for 41 years because ‘Ema’ is easier in an English-speaking world. From January 1, I made the switch formerly and have been finding my way with a new/old name and refurbished identity! Here’s a little guide on pronunciation, if you’re unfamiliar with the Fijian ‘c’.
At the end of 2023, I secured a solo exhibition at Fresh Gallery Ōtara and it has been revitalising developing this body of work. The show, To Live + Die in South Auckland opens on Saturday 4 May and runs until 15 June 2024. It’s a symbolic full-circle moment returning to Fresh Gallery Ōtara to present my work as an artist. Working for Manukau City Council was my first job after art school and opening Fresh Gallery Ōtara in 2006 was a dream come true. I enjoyed so much of my six years managing this gallery; this May, Fresh turns 18, a coming of age!
I chose to launch Vunilagi Vou on the anniversary of Fresh Gallery Ōtara, as a kind of continuum. This May will be Vunilagi Vou’s 5th anniversary, and I’ll be celebrating back at Fresh, as an artist… the universe works in mysterious ways!
Shapeshifting Vunilagi Vou from gallery to studio has felt really good. This space, perched on the edge of environmentally protected wetlands, was a beautiful environment to present exhibitions, but it flexes even harder as an environment for ideas to grow, critical reflection and making.
Pivots can be precarious affairs; every time Vunilagi Vou has shifted sites and modes, more is lost in the momentum of building a secure brand, culture and sustainable business model. The end of 2023 was an opportunity to clean house and shake out what’s not working. This year, the new direction is creative, hopeful, intuitive and aligning projects and production back to values that Vunilagi Vou was built on.
Closing one door has allowed new energy to flow; the projects that have grown this year and are currently underway affirm that this new direction is the right one. I’m excited to share some of the outcomes over the coming months.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on getting more of the VV Stockroom into the online shop (much more to come!) and I’m shifting much of my writing over to Patreon, where I’m inviting monthly subscriptions for US$5 / NZ$9 / AU$8.50.
Patreon support helps me produce meaningful projects, new bodies of work and writing that needs to flex and stretch before it meets an audience. This community of patrons is a forum to share insights into the processes, planning and delivery of my work, and talanoa (discuss and talk story) about the issues that this work brings up. Come along for the ride?
I’ve built a website for my art practice here, and stepping out as an artist more and more to share my work, develop new ideas and introduce my practice to new audiences. I presented alongside the inspiring Ruth Buchanan at ARTSPACE Aotearoa in February, and artist talks are coming up in May and June, more details to come.
I’m also back on board with Kaidravuni.com – the project I started with my father, Kaliopate Tavola, back in 2010. We’re currently processing a backlog of content, including this weighty archive of articles he’s written about Pacific Regionalism, and on the other end of the spectrum, a new flourish of poetry he’s started writing reflecting on our ancestors and genealogy. We’ve got some awesome plans in the pipeline, and hopefully a project that will take us home to Dravuni very soon.
For those who have supported Vunilagi Vou through the ups and downs, thank you, thank you, thank you. I look forward to connecting and crossing paths in the future!