Tungaru: the Kiribati project

Tungaru: the Kiribati project is a creative collaboration between artists Chris Charteris and Jeff Smith incorporating free-standing sculpture, wall mounted assemblages, photography and interactive video.

The project was born out of Chris’s desire to return to his ancestral homeland Kiribati and to experience life on these islands. The exhibition illustrates his and Jeff’s responses to the month they spent on Kiribati and the extensive research undertaken since.

Tungaru is the original name for Kiribati and Chris and Jeff chose it to reflect the long history of Kiribati culture. The core artwork of the project is Te Ma, a monumental construction, 7.5 metres long of ringed Venus shells in the form of a traditional Kiribati heart-shaped fish trap.

Chris Charteris / Jeff Smith

21 March – 31 May 2015

Pataka Art Museum, Cnr Norrie and Parumoana Streets, Wellington