Home AKL - Artists of Pacific Heritage in Auckland
by Ron Brownson, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai, Albert L Refiti, Ema Tavola, Nina Tonga
Artists of Pacific heritage have been making art in Auckland for five decades. Home AKL reflects the significance of their contribution and traces creative exchanges between generations.
Following migration across the Pacific Ocean, artists looked to the past, to memories of life in their homelands, long-practised art forms and the effects of diaspora. Today they look to the present and the future while maintaining strong connections with the past.
The idea of 'home' shifts with every decade and this book illustrates how responses to place and belonging change. Including the work of artists whose heritage derives from the Cook Islands, Fiji and Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, Home AKL is an important introduction to contemporary Pacific art.
Description:
This book illustrates the work of every artist in Auckland Art Gallery’s exhibition Home AKL.
Each of the 29 artists/collectives’ work is discussed in original short essays, which both illuminate the artworks in the exhibition and trace the development of the artists’ practices.
Supporting these artist pages are five newly commissioned essays on topics that include a possible theory of contemporary Pacific art, the significant role of artists practising ancient art-making techniques in contemporary Pacific art, and the influence of social media and the internet on Pacific artists. Biographies and portraits of the featured artists complete the engrossing story that this publication tells.
Home AKL is a beautifully produced record of a visually and thematically rich exhibition which redefines ideas about what Pacific art now is and what it may become.
NZ RRP (incl. GST): $40.00
Extent: 144pp, perfect bound, section sewn, contains over 65 full-colour illustrations.
Format: 240 x 280 mm
Publisher: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki
About the authors
Ron Brownson is senior curator New Zealand and Pacific Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. His publications include John Kinder's New Zealand, Marti Friedlander Photographs, John Ioane, Andy Leleisi'uao, Gretchen Albrecht, and Michael Smither - The Wonder Years. His blog for Auckland Art Gallery is widely read: http://aucklandartgallery.blogspot.com/search/label/Ron%20Brownson.
Albert L Refiti is senior lecturer in Spatial Design at AUT University whose research interests include architecture and Pasifika design.
Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai is a freelance curator and writer who has most recently published Tangata o Le Moana, which relates to the exhibition of the same name at Te Papa, where Māhina-Tuai was a curator for five years. Ema Tavola is a freelance curator and writer, and an arts administrator who has convened successful Pacific Arts Summits. For six years Tavola ran Fresh Gallery Otara.
Nina Tonga is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland’s Art History Department and a faculty member of the Centre for Pacific Studies whose research interests include the influence of social media and the internet on art making.