vasemaca tavola

Regionalism (2008)

Textile assemblage.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki collection.

Originally produced for Pac Pacific Nation curated by Jaimey Hamilton for Arts at Marks Garage, Honolulu, Hawai’o, March 2009.
Shown in BLOOD+BONE solo exhibition, St Kevins Arcade, Auckland, December 2009.
Purchased by Auckland Art Gallery in 2018.

Regionalism references the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the Pacific ocean, a system devised at the 1974 United Nations Law of the Sea conference where New Zealand and Pacific Island countries pressed for control of their fisheries resources up to 200 nautical miles from shore.

The patches representing the EEZ are made from classic floral ‘Island’ print, commonly found across the Pacific region, often a Polyester based textile designed, produced and exported from China. The base fabric is the Australian Defence Force military camouflage nicknamed AUSCAM. At the time that this work was made, RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands) was creating a kind of neo-colonial presence in the Pacific region for Australia and New Zealand. Both the AUSCAM and the China-made ‘Island’ prints represented significant social, political and economic forces at play shaping the Pacific region both directly and indirectly.

Using the base and reference of the sulu vakataga and the ‘Island’ print fabrics, seen as a quintessential Pacific aesthetic, this work aimed to question the concepts we think of as ‘ours’ and the international forces at play that shape, influence and impact development in the Pacific region.

The work also references the ‘Epeli Hau’ofa concept of ‘Our sea of islands’, shifting our frame of reference as Pacific people to the size and scale of the Ocean rather than that of our island landmasses.

Regionalism is an extension of the Colour Me Fiji: A Customised Sulu Project (2005) project by using the sulu vakataga as a base to reference and centralise the Pacific body and by extension, Pacific audiences, and portability, an important concept for me as I did then, and continue to now, refer to my ‘home’ as Fiji, rather than New Zealand.