The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 122 Proximity and Distance (installation views, Tauranga Art Gallery, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021) / Photograph: Sam Hartnett / Courtesy: McLeavey Gallery and the artist Solid Gold (installation view, Te Tuhi, Aotearoa New Zealand) 2018 / Photograph: Sam Hartnett / Courtesy: McLeavey Gallery and the artist Christina Pataialii references three key concepts of space — physical, cultural and painterly — that drive investigations in her art practice. 1 Physical space refers to the site in which painting takes place, and the relationship between different painted surfaces and the artist’s body. Cultural space alludes to cultural influences and symbolism within her works. And within the painterly space, Pataialii experiments with countless material and formal variables within the canons of abstract painting. It is between these spaces and in their interaction that the artist’s work forms meaning. Pataialii discusses how these aesthetic and conceptual spaces can actively feed into one another: I’m interested in depicting the cultural and physical spaces we inhabit through paint. Sometimes the physical space of installation becomes the painting. I like working between and blurring the lines between these spaces in which I myself and the viewer can get lost. I think this is a space where questions around meaning, around belonging and the whys of who we are, are free to shift and be reimagined. Using the medium of painting to try to make sense of the world, Pataialii’s art initiates broader conversations around societal belonging and existential contemplation. Her work in APT10 is influenced by experiences and environments from her youth: I have been thinking a lot about how these settings influenced my paintings and my worldview, creating a bizarre bubble for how I imagined and experienced the world. I kept coming back to memories of the living room after a day of physical labour and monotonous work, returning home to physical stagnation and the mind- numbing mental stimulation of watching TV before bed, and doing it all over again the next day. Pataialii was interested in recreating this experience of space through an installation. She explains the link between formal play and wider narratives in her work: I use the formal language to play out ideas, much like words form different ideas, depending on how they are constructed. There are so many ways to explore and investigate through paint that you end up with a visual depiction of something that is perhaps more representational, yet it can also be the visual depiction of problem-solving material, space and composition, form, colour and surface. It can also be about unpacking a memory or an observation regarding something you’ve stumbled across. Fusing representational figures with more abstracted forms; contrasting gestural marks with controlled blocks of colour; balancing composition with palette — there is a long list of tensions at play in Pataialii’s works which are often acknowledged but not necessarily ‘solved’. On problem- solving, she says: When I start a painting, I lay down a few elements. It might be a colour I want to use or a brushmark across the canvas to map out a composition I want to problem-solve. A work might be finished when I need to stop the process to preserve something interesting happening — particularly works pushed to the point of collapse. By collapse, I mean all of my painterly problem-solving tools have been exhausted and perhaps there is one element that is holding the painting together. Maybe like a small pink spot in a bottom corner that seems to hold a series of failed attempts. I like these works because there’s an earnestness in their failed attempts to solve through paint. Some works are finished when there is a problem left for another painting to solve. Pataialii’s investigations result in captivating painterly experiments which thoroughly consider the physicality of the space and the body. What is truly interesting about her work is how it forms connections between the artist, the viewer and the surrounding environment. Natasha Matila-Smith Endnotes 1 This text and all quotes within it are based on personal correspondence between Christina Pataialii and the author, May 2021. Christina Pataialii Born 1988, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand Lives and works in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand