Make/Shift

Make/Shift is the third annual tertiary exhibition of Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.  Curated by Nina Tonga, this large scale multimedia exhibition displays the strength of emerging Pacific artists from the five Auckland tertiary institutions. Make/Shift presents a number of trajectories that acknowledges the rhizomatic nature of contemporary Pacific experience.

Identity continues to be a strong theme amongst this new post-migration, post-Bebo generation of Pacific artists. Pushing the boundaries of their respective mediums, Selina Woulfe (Unitec) and Nastashia Simeona (Whitecliffe) explore the ritualistic attachment of objects and technology in relation to the body.  Utilising themselves as the subject of their works; their works engage with contemporary body politics and echo the transitional rhetoric of identity that flows through the show.

Collapsing geographical distance Ane Tonga (Elam) and Tony Tia (Elam) revise notions of ‘place’ as public/private/ home/homeland. By altering views of the land, each artist explores the ever-shifting attachments to geographical notions of place. These works are echoed in the migrating memories captured in the works of Caroline Cotter (AUT) Luke Thompson (Elam) and Victoria Patea (MSVA).  Moving between private/public and global/local, each artist articulates a sense of ‘place’; displacement becomes part of a collective and connective process that weaves this show together.

Transitional states and shifting processes are also key themes developed by Chloe Marsters (AUT) Vaimoana Eves (Unitec) and Mele ‘Uhamaka (Elam). Exploring the materiality of everyday items such as toilet paper clothing and melted sugar, these artists blur the boundaries between art and life, high end and low end. Blurring these boundaries further is the work of performance artist Fristar Viliamu (AUT) who utilises multiple bodies in his exploration of art and meaning within the gallery space.

Through a diverse range of works offering many points of entry Make/Shift reflects the shifting nature of emergent tertiary art practice.

Curated by Nina Tonga. Artists include Selina Woulfe, Nastashia Simeona, Ane Tonga, Tony Tia, Caroline Cotter, Luke Willis Thompson, Victoria Patea, Chloe Marsters, Vaimoana Eves, Mele ‘Uhamaka and Fristar Viliamu.

9 September – 24 September 2010

St Paul St Gallery, 40 St Paul St, Auckland.