20May

13Aug

INFLUX | PÄ€TAKA Art and Museum

Louisa Afoa,  Nina Oberg Humphries, Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Christina Pataialii, Jasmine Te Hira, Pelepesite Tofilau and Rhueben Meredith, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Share Tu’ihalangingie, Pati Solomona Tyrell, John Vea and Curated by Ane Tonga

INFLUX

20 May – 13 August 2017

Pātaka Art and Museum

Porirua City

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Exhibition Details

Influx: The Time is Now

Ane Tonga

The term ‘influx’ evokes ideas of constant change, movement and abundance.

Influx: The Time is Now explores this idea in relation to eleven artists of Pacific Island heritage who have made artworks during their tertiary studies at art institutions in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. The exhibition looks at the way that formal tertiary education engages an artist’s practice and how this influence affects and informs Pacific art today.

Tertiary art education encourages artists to develop critical thinking to consider their unique perspective and place in the world. It is a time when many artists uncover their personal power and agency as social, political and cultural commentators and provocateurs.

While the artists in this exhibition are all tertiary trained, and are all linked through shared Oceanic histories, they are not defined by one artistic methodology or any prescribed set of cultural politics. Their works operate in a constant state of flux, pushing and pulling our understandings of Pacific art. As a site of dynamic art production, the exhibition provides a perspective of the Pacific that is much wider than New Zealand alone.

Included in the exhibition is a range of moving image, photography, painting, poetry and graphic design works by Louisa Afoa, Nina Oberg Humphries, Valasi Leota-Seiuli, Christina Pataialii, Jasmine Te Hira, Pelepesite Tofilau and Rhueben Meredith, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Share Tu’ihalangingie, Pati Solomona Tyrell and John Vea.

These artists are reflective of a new generation who do not await graduation to explore the interface between art and life – instead they actively pursue the potential of art to impact their communities and the world around them now.

Curated by Ane Tonga, artist and Lead Exhibitions Curator at Rotorua Museum, Influx: The Time is Now is the eighth exhibition of tertiary students’ work developed by the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust. Tautai is an Aotearoa New Zealand-based Charitable Trust that works to promote contemporary Pacific art through a range of events and promotional activities.

The exhibition is presented  in collaboration with ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology and Pātaka Art+Museum.