Board of Trustees: Fatu Feu’u (Patron), Gina Cole (Co-Chair), Jim Vivieaere (Co-Chair), Loloma Andrews, Ron Brownson, Dianna Fitisemanu, Colin Jeffery, Melipa Peato, Sheyne Tuffery Tautai Office: Lonnie Hutchinson (Tautai Manager), Edith Sagapolu (Tautai Administrator), 1B Ponsonby Road, Stuido 3, Ponsonby. PO Box 44-224 Pt Chevalier, Auckland. Ph: 09-376 1665 • Fax: 09-376 1825 • Mob: 021-373 402

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We called in to see Chris Charteris, partner Lizzy, and sonAtawhai at their home in Kuaotunu on the CoromandelPeninsula on Easter Sunday. They have a secluded propertyabout five minutes walk from the beach. The previousowners planted lots of trees which now give a feeling oftropical lushness. There is a stream running through theproperty, with resident ducks, and a grape vine which hasproduced such a bumper crop that some has been sent offto a wine maker to produce the first ‘waitaia estate’vintage. Sounds idyllic? It is, and looks it!

Chris and Lizzy moved out of Auckland three years ago, firstto Whitianga and then two years ago they bought this placeat Kuaotunu. They have settled in to the small beachsidecommunity and are fully involved in the life there. Theirs isvery much a collaborative partnership with Lizzy’s expertise in cordage evident inmany of Chris’s works. Next door is Birds Nest Studio where artist Tom Mutchand another local, Michael Smither, show their work and gather friends for anannual summer show.

Being isolated from a group of other artists, sculptors in particular, is a drawbackof moving away from Auckland for Chris, and he misses not being able to do anycollaborative projects. Not that he’s complaining too much of course….

Because - being out of Auckland does have its advantages and one for Chris isthat there is not so much ‘culture’ around to see every day and which can havean influencing affect. Culture as in - the people, the sights, the sounds, thegalleries, exhibitions, conversations, discussions – and not being exposed to allthat has given Chris more freedom. More freedom and space to be non-derivativeand more experimental. Freedom to make the move from creating jewellery andbody adornment to concentrating on sculpting, and to move out of the pigeonhole that says ‘Pacific Island artist’ and into that space that simply says ‘artist’.

His Pacific heritage, which includes Kiribati and Fijian ancestry, continues to bea major influence on and in his work. Previously much of his work was perhaps

shaped by what he saw in books and in museums – such asbreast plates, pounamu pendants, whale tooth necklaces and wasekaseka.

Today he is paying more attention to his instinct andintellectualising less about what he is doing. Today he is moreconfident to make mistakes and is happy in the freedom thatallows him to do so. But the forms that are coming into his headare still forms that are common through the Pacific and to Maori.They tend to be more abstract representations of mans’interaction with the environment, with things that werefunctional yet aesthetic. He talks of his admiration for thecraftsmen of old who worked in stone and wood without thebenefit of the high tech tools that he has at his disposal. And withthose men in mind he is taking more time to examine and explore

each particular piece of stone in order to follow or take from it the form it suggests.

Works that he is preparing for his next solo show in late April at FhE Gallery inAuckland fringe the deck fronting this piece of paradise. They are reminiscent ofharpoons - sleek forms, highly polished, and beautiful but with an air of danger.

Christina and Colin

AK05 Transleition

Artist Profile Chris Charteris

Chris Van Doren talking to visitors Tui Hobson at workat Transleition

Shigeyuki Kihara and John Ioane

- dressed to impress

THIS ISSUE: Chris Charteris, Chair Report, Edith Sagapolu, Postcard from PNG, Michel Tuffery, Report from Hawaii, Lima Festival, Events/Exhibitions

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Chair’s ReportNi Sa Bula Vinaka

This is the first Tautai Newsletter for 2005. The Board welcomes LonnieHutchinson as the Tautai Trust Manager. We also welcome our new ArtsAdministrator Edith Sagapolu, who is based in the Tautai Office at Artstation.

Tautai had a very successful week at the AK05 Festival hosting four artistsparticipating in a show in Aotea square called “Transleition”. Many thanks toLina Samu for managing the event for us which was funded by Auckland City.Thanks to the artists for their work in the show – Tui Hobson, Shigeyuki Kihara,John Ioane and Chris Van Doren. Tui Hobson’s beautiful one tonne mataisculpture provided a wonderful focal point for the Tautai tent. Auckland City alsoprovided Tautai with funding to erect a giant billboard in Queen Street featuring the Transleition motif – a striking lei design by Lonnie Hutchinson. This has been

used to promote the new address for the Tautai website. The 15 metre by 10metre sign has been hanging at 360 Queen Street for over seven weeks.

Tautai had a presence at the Pasifika Festival in March and this event was againmanaged by Lina Samu. We are continuing to expand the Tautai website and areworking on updating the artists statements on the site – www.tautai.org. TheBoard of Trustees and management will be holding another strategic planningday this month as we head into the annual funding round with Creative NewZealand. We are also looking ahead to the “Fresh Horizons” project of workshopsfor Pacific art students scheduled for September 2005 in Wellington. That projectwill be managed by Deborah White.

Thank you from me and co-chair, Jim Vivieaere, and the rest of the Board for yourcontinuing support of Tautai Trust.

Ni Sa MoceGina Cole (Co Chair)

Photographer Edith Sagapolu is steadily gaining recognition throughout NewZealand. She was recently included in the major group exhibition Break Shift(December 04–March 05) at the Govett Brewster Gallery and in 2004 was afinalist in the Trust Waikato Art Award. Edith is currently completing her degreein design, majoring in photography from UNITEC while working part time for theTautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust. She has been represented by Anna MilesGallery since the end of 2003 and is working towards her first solo exhibition atthe gallery later this year. Edith’s photography is a response to her up-bringing

and identity as a New Zealand born Samoan. Utilising close friends and familyshe presents personal vistas often set within domestic interiors. Whetherphotographing bridesmaids dressing up for a wedding or a private family momentsuch as evening prayer-time Edith captures the event with a strong sense ofsincerity. Her works are collaborations between artist and friends or familymembers and a mutual trust is evident, as she explains “this relationship/collaboration helps make a better informed image as my subjects know mysubject matter just as well if not better than I do.”

In Rob & Harry 2004 an understated lounge is presented in extraordinary detail.Edith carefully manipulates light and utilises scale to bring into focus the richtextures and patterns of the room. While this image was documented in itsexisting state in other works she directs her subjects and may alter clothing andprops to suit the mood and enhance the authenticity of the image. “My primarytechniques of photography belong to the constructed and documentary genres.What’s important to me is the formality in my images which constructiveapproaches allow me to do. It’s this formality as well as strong compositions that I strive for”

Her upcoming solo exhibition at Anna Miles Gallery, Mrs Amituanai (November2005) will develop from her previous studies of close friends and family. In thiscase Edith Sagapolu will be cast as one of the main subjects as she documentsher own wedding and the recent weddings of her friends and family in the role ofboth bride and bridesmaid. She has looked at early examples of weddingphotography and is inspired by the formal and austere images that were commonin her parent’s generation. In this new body of work, Edith will use the weddingtradition to look at family relationships as well as finding ways to crossovergenres of photography.

Karla Bo Johnson

Edith SagapoluEmerging Artist

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Halo olgeta (greetings everyone)

When Daniel Waswas left Auckland in 2001 to return to Port Moresby he took upa position as lecturer at the University of PNG and held that until he resignedearlier this year in order to set up his own freelance art and consultancy business.Daniel continues …

It was my dream while I was in Aotearoa, my burning desire, to establish anorganisation to carry out contractual arts and other general projects.GALLERYPNG will do that as well as organise exhibitions within PNG and allowme the opportunity to explore new styles within my own work. I’m also about tolaunch GalleryPNG website, with links to Tautai.

The art market here is very small compared to New Zealand and I hope to createmore awareness through the website and let fellow PNGuineans appreciatecontemporary art. New art is still a foreign concept to most people here comparedto their links to traditional artforms ie, carvings etc and it seems to be a uphill battle.

The expatriate community, mostly Australians, Americans and British, are themain buyers in PNG apart from the odd tourists. Some of the major hotels andcorporate companies have commissioned artists to create work for their boardrooms and offices. These are the only form of art sales in PNG now and I thinkonly time and hard work will change that.

I have organised and curated three major group shows over the last three yearstitled ‘Luk Save’ (meaning look at us). With support from the expatriatecommunity it has grown to be a success and now it has a following fromAustralia and the US. This September is going to be our biggest show which willalso to commemorate the country’s 30th independence celebration.

My last solo exhibition in 2002 was held in one of the hotels as we do not haveany proper gallery in PNG at yet. The show was a success in the context of thesituation here and since than I have been working on commissions and

consultancy. Currently I’m working towards the group show in September, a soloexhibition here in Port Moresby in November and a group show in December atthe Cairns Regional Gallery, Australia titled ‘Island Hopping’.

Two weeks ago I donated a painting to a charity auction with proceeds going tohelp people faced with problems caused by natural disasters. My painting, whichfetched K42,000 (NZ$ 30,000), was purchased by a Greek company who have hadlinks to PNG for over 30 years. The fund raising, which was organised by thePrime Minister Sir Michael Somare, and all the associated publicity has certainlylifted PNG art status.

I thank you all and do keep in touch Best Wishes – Daniel Waswas

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Postcard from PNG

Michel Tuffery writes of Singaporefollowing his recent exhibition there...Singapore... It’s the first time I’ve spent a quantity of time there, up until therecent exhibition with Brian Strong at The Art House it has merely been a transitpoint to other destinations.

The Art House is an exceptional high end venue, originally it was the old ParliamentBuilding and is listed as one of Singapore’s Heritage premises. The working

concept behind the location is to offer a number of gallery spaces which aresuitable for theatre, music or the visual arts. Following on from our exhibition wasJacob Rajan (NZ based Indian) who has a two week season of Krishnan’s Dairy.

Time was tight & committed whilst there and essentially felt like I just skimmedthe surface, made some invaluable contacts at various Public institutions andalso with the Raffle La Salle - Art School. The students were highly interested inlearning more about Contemporary New Zealand Art & more widely, art from thePacific. Singapore itself operates by its own form of censorship, much of themedia is controlled. The thing that struck me was the high interest in our music,film & theatre. Singapore is a highly conservative art market in terms of visualarts and much of our art is completely unknown to them, so it’s very much earlydays in the beginning of developing a more viable profile.

The ethnic dynamic in Singapore is quite layered and something I noted becauseof the many different nationalities living in Singapore is the advantage ofspeaking or having an understanding of Mandarin, Cantonese or Korean.

I certainly feel that one can put it on the highly recommended list of places tostart building up a profile for art from Aotearoa.

Best, MichelStudents close up with a Tuffery Bull.

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Annual funding from

ARTS COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND TOI AOTEAROA

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Upcoming Events, Exhibitions & Awards

Design and layout of the TautaiContemporary Pacific Arts Trust NewsletterDesktop Graphics LtdContact: Tagi Cole

43 Selbourne Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland • Ph : 09 -376 3889 • Fax: 09-376 3969Mob: 027-482 6302 • desktopgraphics@xtra.co.nz

APRIL

Until 23 April: ‘Mana Wahine 2005’, incl. Ema Tavola, Yazma Smith, 17 Hutton Street,Onehunga.

Until 30 April: Kumeu Winery exhibition. Incl. Tui Hobson.

Until 3 May: ‘unwritten’, incl. Serene Tay, Visesio Siasau, Nathan Homestead, Manurewa.

9–28 April: Chris Mules and Shigeyuki Kihara, Whitespace, Auckland.

11–30 April: ‘Manukau: diversity/unity/identity’, incl. Serene Tay, Visesio Siasau, AoteaGallery, The Edge.

14 April–14 May: ‘Face Value’ video portraiture from the Pacific. incl. Sheyne Tuffery, JimVivieaere, Lonnie Hutchinson, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.

15–29 April: Luc Tutugoro, Small Gallery, Artworks, Waiheke Island.

17 April–14 May: Lake House Sculpture Symposium & Exhibition, includes Tui Hobson.

16 April–29 May: ‘Takapini’, Teariki Engu, Te Tuhni - the mark.

18 April–6 May: ‘Road to Auckland’, Fatu Feu’u & Lani John Tupu, Reef Gallery.

19 April–29 May: ‘o te povi pusa ma’ataua’, Michel Tuffery, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch.

21–30 April: ‘Somatechnics’, incl. Shigeyuki Kihara, Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney.

21 April–15 May: ‘Red’, incl. Lonnie Hutchinson, SQUARE2, City Gallery, Wellington.

26 April–26 May: Chris Charteris, FhE Gallery, Auckland.

26 April–6 May: ‘Te Vaerua o te Vaine’, inc. Mahariki Tangaroa, Kay George, LorettaReynolds, Daniella Hulme, Sylvia Marsters. The Art Studio, Rarotonga.

28 April–19 May: ‘Persistence’, incl. Jenny Fraser, Lonnie Hutchinson, Institute of ModernArt, Brisbane.

MAY

Until 8 May: ‘Art of Adornment’, incl. Shigeyuki Kihara, Niki Hastings-McFall, Chris Charteris,Sophia Tekela-Smith, Lonnie Hutchinson, Pataka, Lower Hutt.

9–22 May: ‘Women’s Work’, incl. Sylvia Marsters, Brenda Railey, Daniella Hulme, Fa’ameleEtuale, Aotea Gallery, The Edge.

30 May–17 June: Loretta Reynolds, Reef Gallery, Auckland.

21 May–9 June: ‘Cheeky Darkie’, Andy Leleisi’uao, Whitespace, Auckland.

JUNE

4 June–4 Sept: ‘Fresh Eke’ Ani O’Neill, Waikato Art Gallery & Museum, Hamilton.

16–21 June: ‘Spirit of Sculpture’, incl. John Ioane, Filipe Tohi, St Matthews in the City, Auck.

Until 26 June: ‘a comparison of scale’, incl. Fatu Feu’u, te tuhi the mark, Pakuranga.

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Lima FestivalCongratulations!Jim Vivieaere and Fa’afetai Amituanai...now on location in Cuba filming for themovie Robert Louis Stevenson.

Welcome!To Charlize – born March 2005 to proud parents Dagmar Dyck and Lyle Cairns.

For the past five years Christchurch City and Pacific Underground have hosted a Pacific festival. Lima(Samoan:meaning five or hand) was a four day festival 2 Feb-5 Feb 05. The program included a Pacific visualart exhibition at Te Toi Mana Gallery and exhibiting were Michel Tuffery, Sheyne Tuffery, Edith Sagapolu,Bonni Tamati and Maria Ifopo. Michel’s works consisted of a series of welding masks that had spiral likemotifs stuck to them, not unlike a moko pattern. Sheyne had a couple of his ‘fale’ prints and Edith had twolarge scale photographs, one was of her constructed/contrived ‘family in the lounge setting’. Mariaexhibited paintings of frigate birds, and Bonni’s work consisted of sawn off rounds from a log, painted withher own style of caricatures on them. The opening night was a success with Bonni Tamati selling two works.Both Karens were there; Karen Nero from the Macmillan Brown Centre and Karen Stevenson fromCanterbury University. A few Christchurch art dealers and directors came along too. Family members andfriends of the artists were there all enjoying the art and conversation and of course the nibbles and wine.Of interest to all especially the palagi guests was the palusami dip and crackers… mmmm very nice!

Other events were, Open Mic at the Dux De Lux, the Bro Town workshop, weaving workshops, and theTatau workshop in the small gallery space at Te Toi Mana. Peter Suluape, a Tufuga tatau from Aucklandwas fully booked before he arrived and made more time to fit a few more clients in. It was, as always avery popular event.

Kia ora, Aloha and Talofa lava,Earlier this year I travelled to Hawaii as the guest of the Association of Social Anthropology to present botha performance and a statement of my work at the conference ‘New Voyagers: Pacific Artists in the Global art world’.

For the presentation of papers I was honoured to be placed in the same time slot as Donna Tusiata Avia,an actor and playwright based in Wellington and with multidisciplinary artist Rosanna Raymond who iscurrently based in London.. Later during the conference Donna, Rosanna, a group of children from theChumorro Cultural Village Centre in Guam and myself presented our performance pieces at theconference venue to a full house of appreciative delegates.

I had the opportunity of meeting many interesting people at the conference. They were mainly socialanthropologists who were conducting various areas of research in the Pacific. I also met a number ofother academics, including some Pacific Island academics, who shared similar frustrations as I hadraised regarding the lack of an ‘insider’ view being presented at many academic conferences. Therewas a belief that Pacific issues were being responded to by foreign voices - although many of the Pacificscholars assured me that things are changing slowly for the better – they are making sure of it!

I was also fortunate to meet Solomon Island artist Ake Lianga and Rotuman artist Konousi Aisake - bothliving in British Columbia, who also shared their experiences of their art practise at the conference. I wasable to tell them about Tautai and hope that one day we may be able to be involved in some joint project.

Although my work doesn’t rely heavily on academia, but comes more from my life itself, there are certainlycross-overs with what they are doing. I have sometimes found academic conferences to be overwhelming,but when I do find topics that I am intrigued with or passionate about, then my mind sparks up fire worksand I want to find out all I can about those subjects. I think the key for me as a conceptual artist engagingin academia, is to be selective about which academic gigs suit in terms of what I am interested in and tosee how the papers being presented at conference will engage with my own work.

I would also like to thank many people who supported me towards going to the ‘New Voyagers’conference in Hawaii including: Anne D'Alleva, Rosanna Raymond, John Ioane, Jim Vivieaere, PamelaRosi and Eric Kjellgren. Shigeyuki Kihara

Lonnie receiving hand tatau at Lima

Work by Bonni Tamati at Lima

Suga, a three piece band from Melbourne (one member now livesback in Tasmania) made up of a harp player, vocalist andsaxophone/string specialist, also performed at the Dux De Lux,shopping malls and the outdoor stage at the Arts Centre. They werefantastic, performing those songs that our parents used to play andsing and still do. The haunting vocals of ‘Malie Tagifa’ accompaniedby the sounds of the harp… simply magic, it’s no wonder that at thefiafia night they were asked by the audience to play a second time,not a dry eye in the house!

On the last day was the ‘Family Day’ with lots of stalls andcontinuous entertainment on the outdoor stage. This is a daywhere all the Pacific community in Christchurch participate, withfamily food stalls, craft stalls, along with community groups andPacific government agencies. A highlight of the day was thechopsuey competition, that was won by Carol Smith, Scribes mum.

Lonnie Hutchinson