In Conversation: Hanahiva Rose, Ani O'Neill, Salome Tanuvasa

Join curator Hanahiva Rose in conversation with artists Ani O'Neill and Salome Tanuvasa, to lend greater insight into the current exhibition Stars start falling.

Stars start falling brings together existing and newly commissioned works by Teuane Tibbo, Ani O’Neill and Salome Tanuvasa, many seen here in public for the first time.

Stars start falling puts Teuane Tibbo’s paintings from the ’60s and ’70s into conversation with work made by Ani O’Neill in 1999 and new commissions by Salome Tanuvasa, stretching more than fifty years of artistic practice. The artists’ shared sensitivity toward the conditions under which, and locations where, art is made gives a complex view of the shifting landscape of Pacific life in Aotearoa over the last half century.

A space to dream, a space to remember, a space to work, a space to make connections. Stars start falling brings together work that examines processes of memory, learning, and knowledge as responses to the artists’ engagement with the everyday and the extraordinary. Made in the garden, around the kitchen table, in a moment stolen in the dark of night, or as the duties of domestic life continue to tick along in the background, the artworks in this exhibition examine the cultural, social, and political imaginations that shape our relationship to place.

Ani O’Neill was born in Auckland in 1971. She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1994 and has exhibited widely in Aotearoa and internationally since. O’Neill’s work often references skills and techniques passed down from her Cook Islands grandmother, drawing on the unique histories and forms of knowledge which are central to art forms like tivaevae, embroidery, sewing and crochet. Her practice spans installation, object making and performance, both as a solo practice and in collaboration. O’Neill is a member of the Pacific Sisters collective. For the last decade she has lived and worked between Auckland and Rarotonga.

Salome Tanuvasa is a Samoan-Tongan artist based in Auckland. She completed her Masters in Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2014, followed by a Diploma in Secondary Teaching. Her work crosses a variety of mediums including moving image, drawing, photography and sculpture. It is about her immediate surroundings and often reflects the environments she is in at that time, drawing attention to wider issues among New Zealand-based Pacific people.

Image credit: Hayley Bethell