08Aug

09Sep

Kahoa Kakala | Sione Monu

Sione Monu

Kahoa Kakala
8 August – 9 September 2017

Fresh Gallery ÅŒtara

Auckland South

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Exhibition Details

Kahoa Kakala is a solo presentation by Māngere-based artist Sione Monu which builds on his experimental work with nimamea’a tuikakala, or the Tongan fine arts of flower designing using the form of kahoa or Tongan garlands.

Connecting place, people and the different environments in which he works, Monu’s exhibition brings his expanded family and aspects of the spiritual and ecological contexts of art-making in Tonga and Tāmaki Makaurau together into one room. Held in place by 16 large scale photographs, Kahoa Kakala will create the space for a series of workshops and talanoa in relation to Monu’s practice of the Tongan fine arts of nimamea’a tuikakala to unfold.

HÅ«fanga Professor ‘ÅŒkusitino Māhina and Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai will join Sione Monu in conversation to discuss the influences on his works and his making processes within a Tongan indigenous perspective of Tongan arts, focusing specifically on the Tonga fine arts of nimamea’a tuikakala.

Workshops in the practice of Ngatuwise tui Kakala and Kahoa Heilala will be led by artists Evesi Vao and Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows.

Sione Monu will be in residence at Fresh Gallery ÅŒtara for the duration of the exhibition.

Sione Monu is an artist of Tongan descent who works across the mediums of photography, moving-image, fashion and adornment, performance and drawing. Sione is a contributing member of the art collectives Fafswag and Witch Bitch.

Kahoa Kakala has been developed in partnership between Objectspace Assisant Curator Elle Loui August, Sione Monu, and Fresh Gallery ÅŒtara, and will be exhibited at Objectspace in November 2017.

Fresh Gallery ÅŒtara
5/46 Fair Mall
ÅŒtara Town Centre
Auckland 2023

Image: Sione Monu, Manu Vaea, 2017