Staying Power

Staying Power brings together a group of significant works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection by Angela Tiatia (Sāmoa, Aotearoa, Australia), John Vea (Tonga, Aotearoa) and Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (Tonga, Aotearoa). Each artist employs performance as a central element of their practice, using the body and the physicality of movement to create works that, in different ways, explore ideas of endurance, and systems of labour, value, exchange and impact.

Tiatia, ‘Uhila and Vea are Moana Pacific artists who studied art in Aotearoa New Zealand, all attending Auckland University of Technology. Their works offer different ways to think about and grow understandings of Pacific lives in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. In parallel to this, all three artists are working in an international context, and their works create ways to consider global systems and impacts that are connecting and reshaping our lives – from climate change to migrant labour conditions.

Staying Power also includes a community project developed in collaboration with the Ōtepoti Pasifika Arts Collective (ŌPAC). This sets out to create a comfortable space for conversation and exchange that builds on community relationships that have been developing across time.

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Ka ikapahi mai nei a Staying Power i ētahi mahi whakahirahira o te kohika toi o Te Whare Toi Tūmatawhānui o Ōtepoti nā Anglea Tiatia (Sāmoa, Aotearoa, Australia) rātau ko John Vea (Tonga, Aotearoa), ko Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (Tonga, Aotearoa) anō hoki. Ko te whakaaturanga te poutokomanawa o ā rātau mahi katoa, te nukunuku o te tinana, te korikori o te tinana ko whakamahia ki te waihaka i ētahi mahika toi, ka whakatōmenehia te matatū, kā pūnaha o te ao mahi, o kā uara, o te tauhokohoko, o te whakapākaka anō hoki.

He uri katoa a Tiatia rātau ko ‘Uhila, ko Vea nō te Moananui-a-Kiwa, ekari ki Aotearoa rātau i ako ai ki te ao toi, ko te katoa he Ika ā-Whiro o te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau. Ko whakatakoto mai ā rātau mahi i ētahi ara rerekē ki te whakaaro, ki te whai māramataka hoki ki te tipuraka mai o kā ao o kā iwi o kā moutere ki Aotearoa, ki hea atu anō rānei. Hākai pai ana ki tēnei, kai te mahi te katoa ki te horopaki o tāwāhi, mā ā rātau mahi e toko ake ai he aroka rerekē ki te whakaaro mō kā pūnaha ā-ao me kā whakapāka e whakahonohono ana tātau ki a tātau, e whakahou ana hoki i te āhua o tō tātau ao – mai i te hurika atu o te āhuaraki ki kā tikaka tūmahi o te huka kaiheke.

Hai tāpirika, kai a Staying Power he hinoka hapori i whakawhanakehia tahitia ki te Kāhui Toi Pasifika o Ōtepoti (ŌPAC). Ka whakaritea he wāhi e āhuru ana te noho, i ruka i te tūāpapa o kā honoka o te hapori ko whakakaha i kā tau, ki te kōrero, ā, ki te whakawhitiwhiti whakaaro anō hoki.