John Pule (Artist research)
Artist research:
Name: John Pule
Where are they from and where are they now:
John Pule was born in Niue and since 1964 has lived in Auckland.
John Puhiatau Pule ONZM (born 18/19 April 1962) is a Niuean artist, novelist and poet
The is an order of chivalry in New Zealand's honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits"
The Queensland Art Gallery describes him as "one of the Pacific's most significant artists".
Artwork (for each relevant piece):
Name of work: All work considered – looking at themes
What is it, and what is it made of:
John Pule's many solo exhibitions are in essence narratives of history and place, as are his novels and poetry. All are extensions to a non-going project to record his family history into an Aotearoa and Pacific context, combining elements of poetry, prose, drawing,printmaking and painting to maintain his routes/roots to the Pacific.
Among these early works are Mafola (1991) in which we can see many of the images he would continue to use; the figurative elements which often refer to Christian stories, Niuean patterns, abstracted natural images of plants and fish, obscure narratives and European art. There are even images that will take on the cloud formations of his later work and his intentional scrambling or blurring of images is also there.
Other early works such as the Pulenoa Triptych (1995) included images which were essentially metaphors that combined the threads of the artist’s personal life, the history and mythology of Nuie as well as the impact of Christianity on Nuieans both there and in New Zealand.
Rather than see them as merely the records of the artist's life and encounters, what he has created is a new mythology which links the contemporary with the past. The readings of these works become personal to the individual viewer with the collection of images acting as an aide memoir in creating our own explorations and histories.
Over the past two decades Pule has created his own set of geometric motifs and figurative elements. Some of them come from the Niuean hiapo, some from other Pacific traditions while others are from European and Maori sources.
The exhibition also includes several of his works where he used his poetry. These are political works, written in both English and the Niuean language, allowing him to further express his ideas.
Image:
Tukulagi tukumuitea (Forever and ever) (detail) 2005
Tukulagi tukumuitea (Forever and ever) (detail) 2005 Oil on canvas Triptych: 199.9 x 199.9cm (each panel
What does it mean/represent:
“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organise ideas, so I just started writing.”
He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". His work expresses his experience as a Niuean in New Zealand: “My heart and my thoughts were always on Niue. But here I was living in Aotearoa on someone else's land. Writing helped change me, painting helped change me. I went back to Niue as often as I could, and I'd weed and clear the graves for my family and friends' families. It's a way of saying I'm back. [...] We go back home [to Niue] with our Nikes and our jeans and we think we know things. But the local people just think we're stupid. They know where all the trees are and the pathways and where the mythologies and the stories live."
Pule's artwork includes painting, drawing, printmaking, film-making and performance. The topics of his work include Niuean cosmology and Christianity, as well as perspectives on migration and colonialism
His work is highly inventive, particularly in its adaptation of traditional Pacific art forms. It is also challenging and provocative in content.
“Most ideas come from living things. The best ideas come from where I come from. Where I was born is a spectacular event in itself, and that is dazzling for me as an idea”. John Pule, 2014
Pule has developed his art as a way of explaining the world in which he feels isoated
Connection to culture:
He frequently juxtaposes Pacific cultures with the influence of depopulation and diaspora.
Connection to collonialism:
He participated at international art biennales in Johannesburg (1995), where Iw as born in the year I was born
Pule’s art considers the Pacific; its mythologies, histories, colonisation, Christianity and migrant cultures. His work is often provocative, for example: Christ’s crucifixion revealed in his large-scale paintings as a sick, destructive influence on indigenous culture. Conceived and constructed from the imagery and material of tapa cloth, the artist’s paintings also acknowledge the dynamics of migration, procreation and settlement, and the vitality and energy of the artist’s and all Pacific people’s identity.
John Pule once noted that his work aimed to ‘recreate the knowledge lost in migration’. He does this with an art practice that involves a variety of media – literary novels, poetry, installation, performance, painting, drawing and print-making. Pule’s achievements with these art forms, created over three decades, has gained him an international reputation.
He weaves politics, cosmology and mythology together, and pictures global shifts in time and place. Increasingly, Pule’s work acts like a cartography of human relationships while responding to history’s inextricable connection with personal memory.
Critique/response to artwork:
“Niuean-born John Pule’s Tukulagi Tukumuitea/Forever and Ever (2005) – a work featuring ‘porous red stains’ – is framed as expressive of dispossessed land and Pule’s experiences as a migrant freezing worker in South Auckland.” (Smith, 115)
Artist further/other work/development:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Order_of_Merit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pule
http://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/john-pule
https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/620/john-pule
http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/artists/johnpule/
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/john-pule-exhibition-explores-pacific-and-personal-107776
https://ocula.com/artists/john-pule/
https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/yuki-kihara-and-john-pule
http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/apt5/mediacentre/details.asp?ID=18
What I have learnt:
Writing about how I feel and about my experiences are a good place to start
Cold connect myself to the sea as that is where my ancestors were believed to come from. Crab – cancer (sea creature) stars and navigation – astronomy. Actual placement in the world as depicted from something far from Earth.
Start with a story then can create shapes and motifs through that into physical work.
