Julia Mage’au Gray

Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines for #ArtsMonthNZ

Our fourth exhibition at Vunilagi Vou is an image rich homage to the work of Auckland-based Papua New Guinean / Australian mark maker (tattoo practitioner), Julia Mage’au Gray.

Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines (3-28 September) incorporates 119 photographs demonstrating the visual vocabulary Julia works with and the inspiration she draws from Mekeo, Central Province, Papua New Guinea. Her last six months of Instagram posts have been bought to life with hand-written captions, giving voice to the shared moments between Julia and those she has marked, her position on appropriation and assertion of the meaning of Melanesian marks as a mechanism for connecting people with their past, and with themselves.

The exhibition also features two personal narratives of Melanesian women, Emmaline Matagi (Fiji) and Michaelyn Pokarop (Papua New Guinea). Their stories utilise the mode of early ethnological journals that documented societies in Oceania from the perspective of early colonial arrivals, but instead centralise their lives and experience as Melanesian women in diaspora getting marked.

Emmaline Matagi’s daughter, Rae-Dawn (aged 9), who was with her mum when she was marked, has contributed insights and illustrations to Emmaline’s story, making her the youngest exhibitor at Vunilagi Vou so far!

Michaelyn Pokarop’s enia (Papua New Guinean fibre skirt) is shown as part of her story, alongside three beautiful written insights to the experience of discovering her family’s tattoo history, and the process of wearing the marks herself.

The exhibition opened on Tuesday 3 September with a performance from Julia’s Nesian Dance class – another beautiful first for Vunilagi Vou – this arcade was made for dancing!

Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines is part of The Arts Foundation‘s new #ArtsMonthNZ initiative, celebrating the work of 120 organisations, with a deep dive into 20 organisations throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, and Vunilagi Vou is one of them. As part of this, we’re inviting our audiences to ponder the question, what is art? and loving the responses!

Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines is on from 3-28 September with a special hand tap tattoo demonstration on Saturday 28 September from 4-6pm, the same day as the Ōtāhuhu Food Festival (10am-4pm).

Vinaka vakalevu to the Melanesian Marks family for allowing us to put Melanesia front and centre this September!

Events, Exhibitions

Open for business in Ōtāhuhu!

Photo by Raymond Sagapolutele

Vunilagi Vou formally opened on Friday 31 May 2019, a stormy night in South Auckland! Through driving rain and a hail storm, a beautiful mob of Pacific arts supporters came out to celebrate South Auckland’s newest little art space.

A huge thank you to those who supported with wine and food, thank you to Lissy Cole for the amazing catering, and Rudi Robinson for providing an excellent bar man service! Thank you to Vaimaila Urale for a generous koha of bubbles, and Nicole Lim for the cake!

The combined energies of everyone who came out to support and celebrate our launch were hugely uplifting and will undoubtedly set us on a good course, serving and growing the Vunilagi Vou community.

Our inaugural exhibition, WWJD:2 was well received – thank you to all the artists who helped launch Vunilagi Vou’s dynamic and fast turnover exhibition programme; we’ll be opening a new exhibition on the first Tuesday of every month!

Melissa Cole and Rudi Robinson

Leilani Kake

Margaret Aull

Andy Leleisi’uao

Sinia Malua

Molima Pihigia

Daniel Weetman

Niutuiatua Lemalu

Of the 15 works on display, most are for sale in line with Vunilagi Vou’s intention to make contemporary Pacific art accessible to new collectors. Notably, two beautiful paintings by Andy Leleisi’uao, one our sector’s most productive and successful practitioners, still based here in Māngere, South Auckland.

Andy Leleisi’uao has an outstanding survey show called Kamoan Mine on at Pah Homestead in Auckland’s Hillsborough until July 14. The exhibition is the artist’s most significant survey of more than 20 years of practice. It is such a privilege to have these two works, along with a series of print works in the Vunilagi Vou retail area, on show at the same time.

We opened the gallery with a fully stocked retail range including locally produced repurposed textile accessories and homeware by Lissy Cole Designs, hand-made organic coconut soaps by Mananuanua – the mother and daughter home-based small business of artist, Vaimaila Urale, a range of beautiful bilum bags from Papua New Guinea, small paintings by ‘Ahota’e’iloa Toetu’u, a custom range of earrings by Aolele Adornment and accessories and homeware by South Auckland-based mother and son small business, Kingdom Design Store driven by Tongan designer, Czarina Wilson.

Vunilagi Vou’s retail range is constantly evolving and also include a range of framed and unframed limited edition prints by Andy Leleisi’uao, Pati Solomona Tyrell and former Fresh Gallery Ōtara Gallery Coordinator and designer, Nicole Lim, who has contributed a very special edition (50) of her illustration work, Grassroots. The work speaks to both early Fresh Gallery Ōtara and Vunilagi Vou’s dedication to the power of engaging grassroots audiences, and enabling artists to be heard and seen. Thank you Nicole, it’s wonderful to be collaborating again!

Grassroots by Nicole Lim

Artist Nicole Lim, photo by Iokapeta Magele-Suamasi

The launch of Vunilagi Vou was made possible with support from Creative Communities Scheme – vinaka vakalevu!

Vunilagi Vou is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 5pm, Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturday from 11am – 4pm. Find advice for getting to the space here.

Our next exhibition opens on Tuesday 2 July – watch this space for details, or follow Vunilagi Vou on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

vinaka vakalevu

Exhibitions

A new contemporary Pacific art gallery opens in South Auckland on Queen’s Birthday Weekend

Media release: 21 May 2019

A new art gallery in Ōtāhuhu has contemporary Pacific art and audiences at its core. Vunilagi Vou, opening on Queen’s Birthday weekend, will show a new exhibition each month, sell art works and objects and provide a communal space for creatives to come together.

Gallery Director Ema Tavola (Fiji, Pākehā) says that a dedicated space for contemporary Pacific art, that recognises the importance of historical context and community connections, is much needed.

“Our exhibitions programme will highlight important social commentary on issues that affect our lives as Pacific people; expanding the idea and potential of what contemporary Pacific art is and can be.”

Ema says there is a particular focus for the gallery on local artists from the wider Ōtāhuhu and Māngere area and women artists. “We’ll be supporting emerging artists into their exhibition experiences as well as showing work by senior artists who exhibit in central Auckland and internationally.”

Making buying and collecting art more accessible is another important aim of the gallery. “We know there are plenty of people, particularly young professionals, who are interested in original art and supporting artists, and we want to empower and enable that.”

Vunilagi Vou’s opening exhibition, WWJD:2 is a vibrant snapshot of the breadth and depth of contemporary Pacific art, from a South Auckland perspective generally, and specifically Ema’s perspective. “This is my first local exhibition in a long time that speaks directly to my art ecology; the networks and energies that sustain me.”

WWJD:2 featured artists draw heritage from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Sāmoa and Tonga as well as New Zealand (Māori and Pākeha) and Australia. They range from emerging to established, nodding to the intergenerational connections within Aotearoa’s contemporary Pacific art history. Works take diverse forms including textiles, photography, painting, film and paper.

The exhibition, which is supported by Creative NZ’s Creative Communities programme, is the second in the ‘What Would Jim Do’ series paying homage to the renowned late Cook Islands curator, Jim Vivieaere, who passed away on June 3, 2011.

ENDS

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Ema Tavola // hello@vunilagivou.com // 0275 779 369

Notes to editors

Vunilagi Vou

South Auckland’s new gallery centralising contemporary Pacific Art and audiences.
Where: 4/256 Great South Road, Ōtāhuhu (down arcade)
Opening hours: Opens to public Saturday 1 June, then open Tuesday – Thursday from 10am – 5pm, Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 11am – 4pm
Contact: Ema Tavola, email: hello@vunilagivou.com, mobile: 027 5779369
Vunilagi in Fijian language commonly refers to the horizon, but can be broken down as vu- meaning trunk, as in the trunk of a tree, and -lagi the abbreviated version of lomalagi, heaven. Ni serves to connect the two, so vunilagi is that which holds up the heavens. Vou means new.
Vunilagi Vou is also an umbrella for Tavola’s consultancy work, producing events and community engagement initiatives in the South Auckland area
Vunilagi Vou retail: As well as the works in most exhibitions, Vunilagi Vou will sell a small range of art objects by local creatives, including:
- Tyla Vaeau Ta’ufo’ou – Prints
- Lissy Cole Design – Textile works
- Kingdom Design – Homeware and accessories
- Aolele Adornment – Jewellery
- Molly Pihigia – Jewellery

WWJD:2 Exhibiting Artists

Margaret Aull (Tuwharetoa / Te Rarawa, Fiji)
Melissa Cole (Ngati Hine, Ngati Kahu)
Tanu Gago (Sāmoa, NZ)
Julia Mage’au Gray (Papua New Guinea, Australia)
Leilani Kake (Ngapuhi / Tainui, Cook Islands)
Andy Leleisi’uao (Sāmoa, NZ)
Niutuiatua Lemalu (Sāmoa, NZ)
Sinia Malua (Tonga, NZ)
Vea Mafile’o (Tonga, NZ)
Molly Pihigia (Niue, NZ)
‘Ahota’e’iloa Toetu’u (Tonga, NZ)
Vaimaila Urale (Sāmoa, NZ)
Daniel Weetman (Fiji, NZ)

About the Gallery Director

Gallery Director Ema Tavola, born in Suva, Fiji, and based in Papatoetoe, has spent almost 20 years working within the South Auckland creative sector as a curator, producer, researcher, teacher and artist.

Her curatorial practice is a mechanism for social inclusion, centralising Pacific ways of seeing, decolonisation and exhibition making as a form of activism. She was the founding curator of Fresh Gallery Ōtara and has produced close to 80 exhibitions foregrounding work by Pacific artists to be shown both locally and internationally, most recently including 2018’s ‘A Maternal Lens’, shown at the 4th International Biennial of Casablanca in Morocco.

Image credits