The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1966 of both Samoan and European descent, Michel Tuffery attended Otago Polytechnic School of Art in Dunedin from 1985 to 1988 and com- pleted a Diploma in Fine Arts (Hons.), major- ing in printmaking. In 1987 he received the Croda Award and Maspac/Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand Study Grant. The Arts Council issued a further award in 1991. In 1993 the artist was commissioned by the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts to design posters, banners and graphics for the 1994 Festival. Michel Tuffery has held solo exhibitions since 1989 and participated in group exhibitions including 'Fa'a Samoa/Fa'a Palagi', Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Christchurch and Auckland Society of Arts, 1989-90; 'Three Pacific Island Artists', Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 1990; 'Te Moemoea No lotefa (The Dream of Joseph) - A Celebration of Pacific Art and Taonga', Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, 1990; and 'Heart+Land', Contemporary Works on Paper from Aotearoa/New Zealand, touring Australia in 1990-91. Tuffery's work is held in many private collections and in public institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Auckland City Art Gallery and the Museum of New Zealand/ Te Papa Tongarewa (formerly the National Art Gallery). Through his woodcuts on tapa cloth, lithographs, drawings and emblematic carvings Polynesian artist Michel Tuffery gives visual expression to a distinctive cross- cultural interaction taking place in New Zealand. The South Pacific is Aotearoa's most immediate historical, geographical and cultural context. It is in comparatively recent times that artists living in NewZealand with a background in Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Society Islands and the Cook Islands have emerged as a vital force on the contemporary art scene. Fatu Feu'u (born in Western Samoa in 1946) springs readily to mind, with younger artists including Tuffery, Lilly Laita from Auckland and John Pule from Niue gaining increasing recognition. As early as his art school days in Dunedin, Michel Tuffery questioned the paucity of instruction in Oceanic art. He explained in an interview published in Te Moemoea No lotefa (1990) which he later revised: I went to the islands in 198"Z Mainly what I was looking at was the pe'a [tattoo] and one or two NEW ZEALAND MICHEL TUFFERY of the tattoo designs which I was really fas- cinated with because of some of the stories and legends behind them. I felt that could be something I could base my work around. I mostly draw from Cook Island, Tahitian and Samoan designs. I draw from designs that I understand from my own back- ground. A lot of my work is symbolic. I've looked at the motifs in siapo [tapa] and tattoo and how and where the motifs have come from - the shells, the pandanus plant, little centipedes, the frigate bird. In the past two years, Tuffery has con- centrated on producing intricately coloured drawings and carvings symbolising the out- rigger canoes (vaka) which conveyed Pacific peoples on migratory voyages throughout the Islands. He has used the vaka image since making a trip around the Society Islands with his grandfather who recalled storie.s of the construction of huge canoes on' Reaitea (Samoa). The symmetry in design and repetitive patterns in these recent works are combined with iconography which is very much linked to traditional myths of the region which have been passed down orally through generations of his family. Rather than academic sources providing information, Michel Tuffery has made personal discoveries through the whanau (family) network. Anne Kirker 95 Va'a tulu (Boat no. 3) 1993 Carving with synthetic polymer paint on rimu (native timber) and custom board 118x18.5x11cm Collection: The artist Te hekenga nui (The great migration) 1992 Carving with synthetic polymer paint 180x150x30cm Commissioned by the New Zealand Government as a gift to Rarotonga, Cook Islands for the Pacific Arts Festival, 1992