JUNE 2017
www.tautai.org
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gina cole
kaiviti ki te kaiviti
Gina Cole. (Photo credit: Gina Cole)
A
rtist Luisa Tora sat down with writer and barrister Gina Cole to discuss her new collection of short stories Black Ice Matter, workload and living the dream. Luisa Tora: First, I wanted to say congratulations on getting your book out, which is doubled because it also means you got your Masters while you were working. So congratulations on that too. It’s been really well received, reviewed widely, and it’s all positive, and an Ockham, Hubert Church Prize for Best First Book Fiction. Well done you! I guess my first question is, are you living the dream? Gina Cole: Am I living the dream? What is the dream? [laughs] LT: [laughs] That was my next question, because I wasn’t sure if you had a vision of how any of this would play out.
GC: Yeah, that’s a good question. Of course, I planned to do the Masters, but everything after that was uncertain and unknown. So that’s all been a bonus really. Getting the book published was never a known quantity, and finding a publisher was never a known quantity. And so to get it published was an amazing milestone, which you can never really plan for. You just send your book out to publishers and hope for the best. So, I feel lucky that Huia agreed to take me on. They are a Māori publisher so I feel good being with them as a Fijian. You know, they understand the Indigenous point of view. And the Ockham award was very unexpected. Yeah, that was a great thing to receive, I really loved that. Again unexpected, you can’t plan for that sort of a thing.
Black Ice Matter. (Photo credit: Gina Cole)
LT: You’re not exactly resting on your laurels, are you? You’re right into your PhD. So PhD Creative Writing? GC: Yes, a Creative PhD. I’m doing it through Massey University. A certain percentage of it is critical theory and a certain percentage of it is creative writing. LT: What are you working on? What’s next? (This must be a question you get a lot.) GC: I’m going to try writing a novel. I don’t want to repeat myself, so I thought I’d try the long form. LT: Interesting. Similar themes? Which direction are you heading? GC: I will be jumping off from similar Pacific-kind of themes that I wrote about in Black Ice Matter.
LT: Yes, absolutely. Tell me, who from our community is writing in the long form? There’s Albert Wendt, and in that article Victor talks about you but he talks about you as a short story writer, he also mentions that Tusiata [Avia] and Karlo [Mila] both have novels sitting on their hard drives, incomplete novels. And just that whole thing of ‘where is the PI Zadie Smith?’ ‘who is the next Albert?’ Do you want to be the next Albert?
Luisa Tora and Gina Cole. (Photo credit: Gina Cole)
LT: You don’t want to give away too much detail at this point, I imagine. GC: Yeah, well it’s right at the very beginning stage. I enrolled in April/May this year. LT: Thinking about all of these achievements within this very intense period of time where everything seems to be happening at once, I was just wondering, when do you find the time to lawyer? [everyone laughs] LT: [laughs] How do you do this? Tell us please so that we can change our lives. GC: [laughs] Actually people ask me when do I find the time to write. LT: [laughs] No, no. Art is the centre, lawyer is the other job. GC: True, it has been the other way around. Lawyer has been the centre and art has been around the periphery. And it’s still a little bit like that because you know… I wish I could make a living out of my art. What I wish they would do is have a living wage for artists. I think they used to do that back in the old days. I don’t know if that’s something that happened or if I’m just making that up. But I wish that would be something that would happen. LT: I’ve spoken with artist and writer friends about something similar. It being kind of a radical act to write 'writer' or 'artist' as your occupation on your tax return forms. Every time I travel, when they ask for my occupation I say ‘artist’. Yeah, it’s a fricken job alright? GC: [laughs’ I kind of change when I’m travelling. I sometimes write ‘writer’. One time I wrote ‘writer’ and I came through Customs and the
guys looked at my piece of paper and said “Oh, you’re a writer” and they had a conversation with me about it. When I write ‘barrister’, nobody has a conversation with me. LT: I guess the other reason I was talking about first centring your art practice and then the J.O.B. is because I was reading that article by Victor [Rodger] where he interviewed Albert Wendt. Wendt said writers sometimes have to do the thing that pays and he was able to write because he had the time because of his job and writing was part of it. And I was wondering about your process and that sort of discipline. What gets you through those deadlines? What do you put in place for yourself? GC: I have to be very disciplined, I suppose. When I did the Masters I took off one day a week. I took off every Tuesday and I would use that day to write. I would get up very early in the morning and start writing and I would have a certain word count. I basically didn’t have a social life for a year and worked very hard around the periphery, as I say, of law. And now that I’m doing the PhD, I’m doing a similar thing. I’ve cut my law work down to three days a week instead of five, where I can. Sometimes it’s not possible. And the same sort of thing on the two days that I take off in the mornings and on the weekends. Just whenever you can, you know. Ten minutes here, half an hour there. I mean, TV eats up a lot of time. And there’s a lot of procrastination you can do. I find that because I’m very lazy [laughs] I have to be very disciplined and I can be a bit obsessive compulsive. I’ve become a little bit of obsessive but I think you have to be.
I guess what I was interested in is how Teresia Teaiwa, as a contemporary historian, talked about building our own archives. This is while she was researching Fijian women in the British Army. She said she suffered from, I think she called it archive envy, because a lot of her colleagues were able to cite references and to pull from different sources because there was writing about their subjects. While for her there wasn’t very much to pull from because not much had been written. So she talked about building our own archives that then becomes the source for other people. And I wondered if there was any pressure at all or if it was on your radar to represent your community or communities, I think Selina [Tusitala Marsh] talked about “variously imagined Pasifika communities”. Being queer, being Fijian, being Fijian-ScotWelsh, I mean, is it an issue for you? GC: Well you know, we have to write ourselves into existence because nobody else is going to do it for us. And you know we come from that colonial history where we are writing in English, and that’s not our history. We come from an oral history which has been interrupted by the imperial colonial experience. And so we first of all have to grapple with that situation, and then being an academic. Being in the academy there’s Teresia, there’s critical theory work that has been done by ‘Epeli Hau’ofa, and by Albert, and Karlo Mila. And so we are building that body of knowledge where we can refer to our own research within the academy. And the thing is if we don’t do it, nobody else will. I think we’re slowly building up that body of work. There is writing by Hawaiian academics, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Māori academics, other Pasifika academics, Selina. But I think it’s difficult because we are in a context that is inherently alien, the academy. And I mean, I operate within another context that is the law. So, you know we kind of have to wend our way through that and make our own path, and it’s not easy. And like Victor was saying in that article, we have obligations, family obligations, cultural obligations, and there isn’t often enough time for the long form, that’s why poetry seems to be (well I don’t know if that’s right or not but that seemed to be what he was saying), that poetry was easier. Luisa Tora Artist
tautai news Talofa lava
W
ith autumn well and truly underway, I have just been very privileged to spend four days in the deep south with Johnny and Mavis Penisula as part of the Tautai Archive Project. Jasmine Te Hira is leading this important project for us and we were in Invercargill so Jasmine could interview Johnny as part of our Oral Archive. It was chilly outside but wonderfully warm inside listening to Johnny talk about his life and career. We look forward to being able to make this interview and many more available for researchers to listen to in the not too distant future. Tautai was in Wellington for another energised Fresh Horizons in April hosted by the Centre of Creative Arts at Massey University. Tutors were Tupe Lualua, Matthew Salapu aka Anonymouz and Lindah Lepou. This partnership with Massey means we now hold annual Fresh Horizon workshops there and are pleased to
also be able to support other initiatives such as celebrating a new residency program Massey have initiated. This year it sees Lindah Lepou in residence for three months in a cottage on Government House grounds. Wellington was also the focus of our annual Tautai Tertiary Road Trip in May. 20 Auckland tertiary students travelled on a bus driven by Siliga David Setoga with Tina Pihema and Pascal Bridger crewing. They drove through snow and sleet, visited numerous galleries and importantly, were there for the opening of the Tautai tertiary exhibition INFLUX at Pātaka where the roadtrippers were able to support and celebrate with the exhibiting artists. These trips are just one of the components of our tertiary support program and seats on the bus are very sought after. The fourth year of the CNZ funded Internship program is also well underway with all three of the interns having begun their placements. Sonya
Withers is spending her 20 weeks at Te Papa Tongarewa, while Sara Riordan and Sara Maiava have both completed their first placements (at Arts Access Aotearoa and Q Theatre respectively) and will move into their second placements with Auckland Museum and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in July and August. In May we held our second event of the year for our Fetu Ta’i donors, hosted in their home by Rose and John Dunn it was another great night during which Malcolm Lakatani and Janet Lilo presented their work to the appreciative and interested group. In April we had a most enjoyable and stimulating staff outing to Gibbs Farm and recently farewelled Adnan Yildiz, who has become a good friend and supporter during his time as Director of Artspace. We wish him well on his journey. Tofa soifua Christina
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tautai tertiary road trip L
ittle did I know I’d become good friends with 19 of the most talented aspiring artists to grace the scene. Nor did I think doors to bigger and brighter opportunities would open. And never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be coming away knowing and believing that I could actually make it. But, that’s exactly what happened on this year’s Tautai Tertiary Road Trip to Wellington. From the very first day it was clear that I was surrounded by brilliance. Having had no prior knowledge of art or the ability to practice art I was in awe of my fellow road trippers. Awareness of those around you and acknowledging the talents our people possess is what the road trip offers. We’re a people who work collectively and we know that after university we have to enter the big bad world. The journey we shared gave us the chance to start a much-needed conversation that would prove we weren’t alone and that “we’re all in this together”. The opening of Tautai’s INFLUX exhibition at Pātaka Art + Museum had to be the cherry on top. The tertiary show, curated by Ane Tonga, displayed artworks that were by our people, for our people. Individually each piece showcased and highlighted an aspect or form of Pacific Culture and history. Doing so spoke volumes to me as I’m sure it did for everyone else. The show demonstrated not only how versatile our culture
Tertiary students on the way down to Wellington. (Photo credit: Tautai)
and people are but proved also that brown people just like us, who encounter the same struggles we do, who conduct themselves the way we do, can make it in such a demanding field. This annual road trip gives us young ones the chance to appreciate, acknowledge and follow
the giants whose shoulders we stand on. The trip offers enlightenment and empowerment and I am truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to tag along. Seini Latu Writer and Anthropology Student
fresh horizons 11 – 13 April 2017 Wellington
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resh Horizons returned to Massey University, Wellington, in April, partnering with Massey’s College of Creative Arts. The workshops provide a unique learning experience for students, with the opportunity to solely focus on being creative and learning from professional artists. The combination of art forms for this Fresh Horizons was unique and allowed a collaborative spirit and supportive network to naturally build amongst the students. Sincere thanks to our local co-ordinator Sera Gagau, Massey University’s Herbert Bartley and Belinda Weepu for all their support – and most of all to our artist mentors, who were: Lindah Lepou (Lineage + FashionART), Matthew Salapu (Shaping Sound, Making Music) and Tupe Lualua (Culture moves: Pacific dance and theatre). Lindah’s students were tasked with creating garments from scratch, working with a single material, paper. By removing technology and diverse materials, students had to be creative in their approach and technique, in order to complete their works. Key to Lindah’s practice is lineage and she would talk with each student individually about their heritage, their families and what makes them special and then encourage them to utilise this within the garments they were creating. The process was very challenging, but the results were stunning.
Matthew Salapu with a group of students. (Photo credit: Tautai)
each had strengths in contemporary, hip hop and Siva Samoa dance forms, which they were able to combine for the pieces they created.
For ‘Culture Moves’, Tupe’s workshop focused on storytelling and expression through dance and physical movement. It was a new for the students to workshop their inspiration for dance and the narrative behind their movements. The students had the chance to creatively express themselves and Tupe encouraged her students to add choreography to the pieces they worked on. They
Matthew’s students were given the task to create and record their own original song. The students worked in two groups and had to come up with the theme and ideas for their song, write the lyrics and compose the music, along with confirming who would play the instruments and sing the vocals. With the time they had, the two groups had to each work very fast, learn to collaborate well and also pick up new techniques quickly, in order to complete their songs. Guided by the artist mentors, it is great to see the development of works by the students over the three days and wonderful to see their personal confidence grow as well. The students also benefited from spending time at the Massey campus and it was very influential for those
considering their tertiary study options for next year. To end Fresh Horizons, the students prepare an exhibition event to present their completed works to each other and also their family and friends. Due to the impending storm, we decided to finish early on the final day, so that our students could get home safely. This significantly reduced the time for students to finish their works and prepare for the exhibition event, but everyone rose to the challenge. The exhibition event was re-designed to be a walking tour of the three workshop spaces. A number of parents, school teachers and University staff were still able to join us and see the works created by the students. Despite the challenging final day, every student proudly displayed, presented or performed the work they had created – a perfect way to end Fresh Horizons.
Tupe Lualua during her 'Culture Moves' workshop. (Photo credit: Tautai)
Petrina Togi-Sa’ena Program Leader
queen's birthday honour C
ongratulations to Deborah White, who has been appointed Officer of The New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for her dedication to and support for the arts in New Zealand. In 1995, Deborah was a founding Trustee and the Secretary of Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust. She has developed relationships internationally for Pacific artists and personally toured exhibitions of Pacific artists to New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne. She established Pacific Artspace in Melbourne to assist contemporary Pacific artists to exhibit and as well was responsible for the highly acclaimed Pacific Notions exhibit, which toured internationally. “I was proud to be a part of this group and the difference the trust made to the way Pacific art was regarded. We recognised there was a growing number of talented Pacific artists
based in New Zealand with no support and were excited by the potential to promote their work to new audiences. It is wonderful to see Tautai continuing this work and developing new exciting projects annually”. Deborah established Whitespace Gallery in Ponsonby in 2003, which continues to exhibit New Zealand contemporary artists and through which as its founding Director, has encouraged and supported young emerging artists. She was also the founding Trustee and Chair of the New Zealand Contemporary Art Trust formed in 2005 to present the Auckland Art Fair. On top of that, for many years Deborah has presented a public programme for the Auckland Art Fair and in 2010 she developed Artweek Auckland, an annual art festival with more than 100 exhibits and events across the city all freely accessible to the public.
Deborah White. (Photo credit: Deborah White)
Marlaina Key
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coconuts that grew from concrete 18 May 2017–15 July 2017 Artspace, Auckland
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've never seen work like this from Yuki Kihara. Upon entering Coconuts That Grew From Concrete at Artspace we are met by a boisterous family of images where photography and painting come together as collage. The images look like their formal lineage is found in the work of Cindy Sherman, The Guerilla Girls and Barbara Kruger especially. The graphic juxtapositions of colonial photography and classical European painting betray the works earnest didacticism. The work acts as a germ, each pulled from a selection of research sketches and materials.
This latest exhibition falls under the framework of outgoing Artspace NZ Director, Misal Adnan Yildiz’s Singular Pluralities ∞ Plural Singularities, a series that aims to “reflect on the studio process… [while involving] various research elements into the forms of presentation such as literary references, sketches and materials…” Kihara’s relish for experimentation and play within this premise is evident. I interact with this presentation on three levels: as a viewer, as a longtime admirer of Kihara’s practice, and as a member of the team that works at Artspace NZ. It’s the latter that presents the most interest to me, not because of the potential conflict of interest
this presents, but because of the interactions I get to have with the public as they view this presentation. Perhaps most interesting are the interactions and opinions of Samoan viewers. Some embrace the nudity, some are aware that it is a sexualised portrayal done by first contact colonisers, and some are filled with discomfort to see women who are their possible ancestors so comfortable in the nude. The intracultural talanoa this exhibition initiates is invigorating to witness and the challenges it presents call us to interrogate both the past and the present.
Opening of Coconuts That Grew From Concrete. (Photo credit: Linda Tanoa’i aka Linda T)
Cameron Ah-Loo Matamua 2017 Artspace/Tautai Education Intern
bigger, badder heights: new work by janet lilo T
his year, Janet Lilo nabbed three of the most high-profile commissions available in Auckland: the Karangahape Road light poles, the Auckland Festival of Photography’s annual commission, and a new work for the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki’s triennial Chartwell Collection exhibition. These major projects provide an opportunity for Janet to expand the scale of her experimental processes, yet they also reciprocally benefit from Janet’s expanded ideas of what public commissions can look like. Each year, the Auckland Festival of Photography invites an artist to produce new work that will eventually enter into the festival’s collection. As someone who often photographs her family and friends, collections pose a heightened ethical concern in Janet’s practice. Her response is typically unconventional and innovative. Rather than presenting a traditional hang,
Janet’s installation consists of a large backdrop featuring a blown-up image of her hand and forearm. Speaking the visual language of a photography studio or backdrop, visitors are invited to literally step upon Janet’s arm and take a photo against her larger-than-life hand. What could be a passive experience here becomes participatory. The images of people that one normally expects multiplies and migrates across mobile devices. Janet’s light poles along Karangahape Road similarly feel irreverently-Lilo. Her known characteristic banana motif — an example of something that has both a local vernacular and a universal relevance — features as a repeated pattern along the length of the poles. Each pole also features text that lights up the street in neon. Here, Janet’s understated ear for evocative words that succinctly tell a story are
writ large. My favourite, “WAIT FOR ME”, adds longing to each passing of the K’rd intersection. Shout Whisper Wail! at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki also features Janet’s increasingly ambitious exploration of neon. While also featuring text — the iconic movie line “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” — it’s the basketball hoop made from neon that pushes the application of neon into a new area. A triptych of videos and two gym-like ladders juxtapose sports, music and Darth Vader. Though her new works push materials to bigger, badder heights, they still evidence a constant in Janet’s practice: to take what might be familiar and conventional — the banana, the photographic commission, the basketball hoop — and make it extraordinary. Ioana Gordon-Smith Curator Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery
Janet Lilo's light poles on Karangahape Road. (Photo credit: Tautai)
Janet Lilo and friends at the opening of Shout Whisper Wail! (Photo credit: Linda Tanoa'i aka Linda T)
Janet Lilo's light poles on Karangahape Road. (Photo credit: Tautai)
CoCA x #PacificArt I
’m heading to Ōtautahi Christchurch in August to be at the 2017 Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Artist in Residence at the University of Canterbury – and I can’t wait! The footprints I follow are those of our sector’s heavyweights. This is a prestigious opportunity, and as the first Fijian and the first curator to take it on, I’m primed to work hard and represent Fiji, and South Auckland, full speed no brakes! In order to get a feel for the place, and the appetite for things Pacific, I took the opportunity to visit Ōtautahi for the opening of Making Space curated by Khye Hitchcock for Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA). The show celebrates collaborative creative practice and provides space for six art collectives to present work, activations, performances and opportunities for dialogue.
FAFSWAG presented a suite of photographs and video works by Jermaine Dean, Akashi Fisiinaua, Tanu Gago, Moe Laga, Sione Monu, Pati Solomona Tyrell and Manu Vaea. The collective offered up a taste of FAFSWAG Ball culture at the opening which lit the eyes and hearts of the room on fire. SaVAge K’lub represented with installations of coloured salt and sound, adornment and full-colour murals by Numa Mackenzie alongside large-scale sculptural works by Siliga David Setoga. Their offering reflected the centrality and residue of the act of performance as activation of shared space and indigenous presence. FIKA Writers, an Ōtautahibased collective, created a life-size living space, a warm corner of homeliness, space to read and reflect, write and share. Other collectives, Fresh and Fruity, The Social and Mata Aho Collective
created and presented compelling installations reflective of collective making and thinking. As an observer, CoCA’s hosting of these Pacific artists, and their communities, was so impressive. In simple gestures like providing time and space, good food and resource, and allowing for their presence to be celebrated, richly, and not as tokenism. This felt like a significant exhibition on a national scale, something for Auckland to definitely reflect on. Much respect to Khye and the team for this special project. Making Space runs until 20 August. Find more info on public programme events at coca.org.nz Ema Tavola Artist-Curator-Writer-Organiser
Performance in the FIKA Writers space at the Making Space opening. (Photo credit: Janneth Gil, courtesy of CoCA)
Pati Solomon Tyrell of FAFSWAG voguing at the Making Space opening. (Photo credit: Janneth Gil, courtesy of CoCA)
Team Tautai:
Patron: Fatu Feu’u Board of Trustees: Nina Tonga and Siliga David Setoga (co-chairs), Ron Brownson, John Gandy, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Janet Lilo
Treasurer/Secretary: Colin Jeffery
Christina Jeffery (Manager), Petrina Togi-Sa’ena (Program Leader), Tina Pihema (Arts Administrator), Robert George (Digital Media), Pascal Bridger (Tertiary Liaison Auckland), Etanah Lalau-Fuimaono (Tertiary Liaison Wellington) Lana Lopesi (Newsletter Co-ordinator)
PO Box 68 339, Newton, Auckland, 1145 Phone: 09-376 1665 Tautai Office: Level 1, 300 Karangahape Road, Auckland Email: tautai@tautai.org Website: www.tautai.org
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Andrew and Kenneth Merrick, Beat and Pieces, performing at Whitespace, Auckland. (Photo credit: Marlaina Key)
Anonymouz, Dee Letoa, Grantis Apiata. (Photo credit: Grantis Apiata) uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust receives major public funding from Creative New Zealand and also receives significant funding from Foundation North and generous support from our Fetu Ta’i donors Rose and John Dunn, Adrian Burr, Philippa Archibald, Art + Object, Ema Aitken and David Galler, Kriselle Baker and Richard Douglas, Phif and Grant Bettjeman, Rosie Brown and Graham Wall, Sherry and Gary Butler, Jenny and Rick Carlyon, Joanna and John Chaplin, Chartwell Trust, Angela and Mark Clatworthy, Annie Coney, Christine Fenby and Greg Gaylor, Virginia and Stephen Fisher, Antonia Fisher and Stuart Grieve, Friedlander Foundation, Dame Jenny Gibbs, Jo and Terry Gould, Jo and John Gow, Josephine and Ross Green, Cathy and Michael Hapgood, Anne and Peter Hinton, Sally and Peter Jackson, Dayle and Chris Mace, Geri and Richard Martin, Kathy and Bill Peake, Rei Foundation, Fran and Geoff Ricketts, Jenny and Andrew Smith, Madelene Strong, Fran Wyborn