Blending Pacific and European

Press, 17 May 1989, Page 21

Blending Pacific and European

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

I am not a Pacific Island artist, I am a New Zealand one, says Michel Tuffery, whose exhibition of prints — Fa Samoa/Fa Palagi — shows at the C.S.A. until May 20. Born in Wellington in 1966, Tuffery is the eldest of five sons born to his Samoan mother and European father. He says his father and brothers struggled to understand their Samoan inheritance and his own desire to learn his mother's language and culture is intended to help the rest of the family. But he also searches, in his art, for a more specific identity: exploring his parents’ diverse cultures and how they contribute to his make-up as a new New Zealander. “My work reflects my interpretation of the Samoan way,” he says, “but I always keep my father’s culture involved too.” At first sight his woodcuts appear decorative, but Tuffery explains that these repetitive patterns are all heavily symbolic. The weaving motif, for example, signifies the woven mats so important in Samoan life. These represent the importance of family working together and the matai, or chief, working with them. His father’s Western in-

fluence is seen in the arched print edges; the European stained glass window shape embraces the print and provides a frame. The latter is more evident in th second series in the exhibition: the colour reduction woodcuts based on the three crosses at Calvary. The colour and fractionated forms recall the stained glass itself, but the composition has been broken down. Tuffery’s portmanteau style could take a long time to reach maturity — perhaps even his lifetime, he admits. Tuffery wants viewers to read his works as they would a book. Indeed there is a tasi, a book, which was made over three months using walnut, flax and shells for the carved cover, and colour reduction woodcuts framed with bamboo for the pages. Tuffery makes his own paper from mulberry. The prints all have a story to tell. La’umei, the turtle, symbolises the artist’s journey through the Otago Polytechnic art school in the last two years. Tuffery followed the turtle’s spine, not being diverted by other paths, yet supported by the advice of others. Pili, the lizard, is Tuffery himself. “In the islands there are always small lizards darting along the walls. Stopping

and staring, then moving on. That’s like what I am: the observer.” Tuffery was in Samoa for three months a year ago, travelling around the islands teaching young people how to make woodcuts. Now based in Wellington as a relief teacher, he is exploring wood carving and hopes to look at themes such as the “wall of death” net fishing. This is a threat both New Zealand and Samoa have to deal with, he says — some problems are common to both cultures. In a year’s time he travels to Manoa University in Hawaii to complete a Master’s degree, specialising in Pacific Island tattoos. Samoa has a verbal, not visual, tradition of storytelling; the ornate tattoos that appear on people’s thighs are the only real exception. “New Zealanders have never seen a lot of the designs. I want to look at pre-European and current tattoos, to revive them and create new designs of my own.” Already Tuffery has gone as far as he can go with his study in New Zealand. In Hawaii he hopes to exchange what he knows for information unobtainable here. He has the David Con Hutton Award Scholarship to assist him; before this came a number of other awards and grants for this refreshing young artist.