Phosphene (2023)
Acrylic on 14oz canvas, mounted and box framed by Artmount & Framing Matters (21 April 2023), charcoal object style box frame measures 565x830mm with a depth of 50mm.
- Produced for solo exhibition, Backbone presented at Vunilagi Vou in April-May 2023.
- Private collection.
This body of work was informed by what is commonly known as Lapita Pottery, a ceramic tradition that maps human migration and settlement across the Oceania region from as early as 1500 BCE. In this painted study, the central form is a silhouette of an imagined, fully-formed ceramic vessel from the Lapita era. The snake represents Tavola’s totemic system from the island of Dravuni in Kadavu, Fiji. For Dravuni people, the dadakulaci (banded sea krate) is the carrier vessel of Ravuravu, their Vu (one single originating ancestor) and thus a protective guardian.
The title and palette of this work references Tavola’s visual experience of heightened states achieved through meditation and healing practices. The snake is also a reference to the concept of Kundalini energy being awakened through the remembering of indigenous knowing.
As an intuitive body of highly personal work, Tavola locates her own healing within a broader socio-political act of healing, and decolonisation as recovery. Backbone draws on the artist’s experience with understanding generational trauma, practising bodywork (yoga, meditation, breath work and rongoā Māori) and spirituality, and exploring the act of creative expression as a healing practice.
vasemaca tavola 