New Zealand-Samoan artist appointed Artist in Residence

New Zealand-Samoan artist Ioane Ioane has been appointed Artist in Residence for the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury.

A contemporary, modernist Pacific artist, Ioane will be coming to UC after representing New Zealand at the 12th South Pacific Arts Festival in Guam this month (May) where he will be making a presentation at his solo exhibition at the Guam Museum.

Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Professor Steven Ratuva has welcomed the artist’s appointment, describing Ioane’s work as “amazing” and says he looks forward to having his artistic input at UC.

“He will help us develop a virtual art gallery for Pacific art where we can exhibit and promote Pacific art internationally.”

As part of his proposal, Ioane plans to research the navigational heritage of the Pacific and carve a series of maquettes based on the Samoan va’atele (three-metre canoe).

“I will carve a series of various va’atele maquettes in concert with my research findings using the MacMillan Brown library to understand deeper the cosmology that links our ancient navigators to the ocean, stars and the Va (space between) that binds all,” Ioane says.

Professor Ratuva says Ioane is well placed to provide contemporary Pacific artistic designs as part of the campus rejuvenation and sees this as a great way of integrating Pacific art and architecture in an innovative manner at another level. Ioane brings with him a lot of experience and expertise through seminars, exhibitions and other activities, he says.

“Part of Ioane's residency project is to carve a life-size Samoan canoe, va’atele, which will be part of an international exhibition in Auckland, plus a series of smaller canoes as exhibition pieces to promote the Pacific artform.”

Born in Christchurch, Ioane is of Samoan descent (Manono/Puapua/Faatoia). Funded by a Creative New Zealand grant, his three-month artist’s residency runs from 8 June to 8 September 2016.

Ioane's art workshop will be located in UC’s School of Fine Arts, which is one of the Artist in Residence programme partners, together with the Macmillan Brown Library, UC’s Pacific Development Team and UC’s Art Collections Curator. The UC Foundation received the grant from Creative New Zealand to support the Pacific Artist in Residence programme; the UC Foundation is a registered New Zealand charity that supports the University of Canterbury, its staff, students and the wider community.

The Macmillan Brown Pacific Artist in Residence programme has been offered annually at UC since 1996. The residency aims to provide the chosen artist with an opportunity to develop new directions in their artistic practice and to support and promote the development of indigenous Pacific Art in New Zealand.

ENDS

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