Andy Leleisi'uao: Lateral Homonia (2023)

Through an intuitive allegorical story-telling process Andy Leleisi’uao delivers social and political narratives full of messages about hope, existence and belief, indices of daily behaviour and the interactive faces of culture.

Lateral Homonia powerfully evidences Leleisi’uao’s constantly evolving metaphorical language of signs and symbols. Harnessing the hieroglyphics of time, he is asking of us ‘what is culture?’ and ‘how is it measured?’ ‘Where and how does it exist?’

Imbued with characteristic tenderness, visual puns and enigmas, Leleisi’uao recomposes and completely alters the traditional picture plane into portions which become constituent parts of a greater ‘whole’. He fractures the conventional structure of an image by compartmentalising elements into variously sized and shaped boxes, or by introducing linear elements which redefine space and depth. This pictorial maturity and artistic confidence is everywhere seen in Lateral Homonia.

He uses the architecture of letters and shape as contrast to the dominant morphing fluidity in his works. We see anemone-like figures exuding calm and wonder, the journeying hulls of ships and canoes loaded with people and objects, eyeballs and balloons floating in the foreground, people engaged in daily tasks.

These are not paintings with a beginning, middle and end narrative. Nothing is actually resolved. And that is precisely why they are so important, because they actively harness the viewer’s perceptions and willingness to engage. These paintings are about all of us: where we’ve been and are going and how we get there.