TAUTAI NAVIGATE

Next year we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Tautai. As a mark of celebrating 30 years of Contemporary Pacific Art we will be hosting an exhibition called TAUTAI NAVIGATE.

TAUTAI NAVIGATE: Thirty years of navigating contemporary art

From the first exhibition of works by Fatu Feu’u at the gallery walls of the Massey Homestead to 1 Ponsonby Road thirty years later; this exhibition is a celebration of the journey thus far.

The parameters of the Va expanded for contemporary art made by Pasifika people in Aotearoa, and indeed the world. Tautai has been the set of coordinates for countless artists of Pasifika origins. It’s the place where first exhibitions and consecutive exhibitions have been mounted. It has been the safe haven from which Pasifika artists could first test and safely explore the concept of the ‘white cube’. Where Pasifika philosophies are applied without question and where many grew in confidence to journey alone in the intrepid waters of the art ocean.

Thirty years has seen not only the world move rapidly from analogue to digital and from postal mail to electronic. Technologies and information has forever altered the way in which art is viewed and practiced. Tautai’s artists too have moved fluidly throughout these shifts.

An entirely new generation has been born and brought-up knowing how to navigate the artworld with much more fluency. The result has generated some incredible ground-breaking works. Now, there is a confident and powerful dynamic face to Pasifika art in Aotearoa, the Pacific and indeed, the world.

Image: Etevise, Walt and other aiga’s tales (Image credit: Leafa Wilson, 2000)