Performance by Kalisolaite ‘Uhila

Encounter award-winning performance artist Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (Tonga, Aotearoa New Zealand) for a live performance experience within the gallery in which his performance-based works Kapa Mā are displayed.

Kalisolaite is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and is recognised for his works that take inspiration from his daily life; his performances drawing the viewer into his perspectives and experiences of the world.

In 2019, Kalisolaite used the gallery as an open studio to create the work Kapa Mā (2019), created from a stockpile of metal cabin bread times in an ongoing drumming performance. A recurrent theme within Kalisolaite’s practice is how time and labour are valued or made material, with this sculpture offering a physical record of his time spent living and working in Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Staying Power brings together a group of major works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection by artists from Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, the Pacific. It includes works by Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, Angela Tiatia and John Vea, as well as a project developed in collaboration with the Ōtepoti Pasifika Arts Collective. 

FREE 10am – 5pm
Saturday 27 June and Sunday 28 June
Note: Kalisolaite will be performing periodically across the two days. There will be times where he is not performing throughout the day.

[Image: Kalisolaite 'Uhila, Kapa Mā (2019). Performance. Photo by Iain Frengley. Courtesy the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland.]