To be at home: Salome Tanuvasa

18 Pēpuere – 7 Mei 2023

He puninga toi aro-paenga hōu a ‘Here Taunga’, nā te ringatoi, nā Salome Tanuvasa, he kohinga kara i hāngaia ki te papanga hou, ki te papanga hangarua anō hoki. He mea tuitui, tui tāpiripiri hoki ētahi āhuahanga e te ringatoi hei hangahanga whakakoakoa, tūrehurehu hei tohu i te ahunga me te nekeneke – hei mihi i te rerenga o te tangata me te korero.

I te whanaketanga o āna mahi, nā Tanuvasa i muramura ai te tomokanga me te kona o Te Whare Toi, he huinga pāpori, hei pōwhiri, hei huihuinga, ka mutu, hei whakawhitinga paepae. Ko te taitara o tāna whakairinga hei mihi ki te ingoa o Heretaunga, takea mai ai i te tumu herenga waka, ā, he whakakotahitanga o te kupu, ‘here’, “ki te here”, me te ‘taunga’, “kia noho ki te kāinga”. Ka tūhuratia e Tanuvasa te wairua nui o roto i tēnei kīanga, pēnei i te poipoi, te māoriori, te taunga rānei me te noho huānga.

Ko ētahi āhuahanga, ētahi tae, ā, ētahi tohu anō hoki ka tāruatia e Tanuvasa i āna mahi toi, hei tohu i tōna ao, ā, he wā ōna ka tohu ki te māra o ōna mātua i Panmure East, Tāmaki Makaurau. Mō te whakamahi papanga, e ngākaunui ana te ringatoi ki te mihi i ngā mahi a ngā wāhine pēnei i tana māmā, he kaituitui. He hua āna kara o te whakapau kaha me te raka o āna mahi toi. Kāore i te aro ki te mahi ā-rehe pēnei i te aro ki te pukumahi me te manahau – o roto, ā, o tua anō.

He ringatoi Hāmoa-Tonga a Salome Tanuvasa, ā, kei Tāmaki Makaurau ia e noho ana. He taunga ki ngā momo toi pēnei i te peita, te tā, te pūeru, te hopu whakaahua me te ataata. Ko āna mahi toi hei whakaatu i tōna ao, ā, whakamahia ai ngā kai kei ōna ringa ki ana toikupu me tōna ihumanea, tae atu ki āna matapakinga ki te hunga mātāpuputu o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa e noho ana ki Aotearoa.

I puta te ihu o Tanuvasa i te tohu paerua ki Elam School of Fine Arts i te 2014, ka whai ko te pōkairua whakaako Kura Tuarua. Kitea ana āna mahi i ngā kohinga tūmatanui, tūmatawhāiti anō hoki, ā, i te 2018, i riro i a ia te Tohu Auaha ki China Academy of Art, Huangzhou, ki Haina.

18 February - 7 May 2023

To be at home is a new site-specific installation by artist Salome Tanuvasa, comprising a series of banners made from new and recycled fabric. The artist has stitched and appliquéd shapes into playful, abstract compositions which suggest direction and movement — responding to flows of people and conversation.

In developing her work, Tanuvasa has highlighted the Gallery’s foyer and alcove as social spaces, used for welcoming, gathering and transitioning between thresholds. The title of her installation acknowledges the place name Heretaunga, which originated from a mooring for canoes and combines the kupu ‘here’, "to tie up", and ‘taunga’, “to be at home”. Tanuvasa explores the breadth of feelings held within this phrase, which might encompass being nourished, at ease, or a sense of familiarity and belonging.

Certain shapes, colours and motifs recur across Tanuvasa’s art practice, responding to her immediate environment and sometimes referring to her parents' garden in Panmure, East Auckland. In using textiles, the artist is interested in speaking directly to the work of women like her mother, a seamstress. Her banners are an offshoot of a restless, multidisciplinary art practice. They are not about craft as much as labour and joy — within and beyond the domestic realm.

Salome Tanuvasa is a Tongan-Sāmoan artist who lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She works across a variety of media, including painting, drawing, textiles, photography and video. Her artistic practice responds to her surroundings, utilising what is around her in poetic and intuitive ways, while also speaking to some of the wider experiences of Pacific people living in Aotearoa.

Tanuvasa completed her Masters degree at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2014, followed by a Diploma in Secondary Teaching. Her works are held in public and private collections and, in 2018, she won the Creative Award from the China Academy of Art, Huangzhou, China.