Please note that as of mid-2005 the web pages of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre are now located at http://www.vanuatuculture.org.
I chose the theme Development after Independence, which is one of the ten themes that were identified for the artist. My painting is a reflection of the way that I perceive Vanuatu is moving away from the ideals that the people originally thought of at the time of Independence. What I perceive has happened after Independence is that for one reason or another, and it was probably inevitable, Vanuatu has moved in the direction of a cash economy and increased westernisation.
| What I chose to do was basically a picture or image of the Vanuatu flag but I have changed the section where there is a pig’s tusk surrounding crossed namele leaves. The namele leaves symbolise peace and the pig’s tusks symbolise wealth, traditional wealth. Instead of that I’ve replaced that section with a blanket of photocopied 1000 Vatu notes. |  |
It is a statement about the way the cash economy has superseded a lot of these national symbols, which were developed at the time of Independence in 1979-1980. I think that this will be readily apparent to ni-Vanuatu.
I chose to paint on plywood. I’ve used canvas and canvas board in the past but I wanted to do something quite big. My experience of canvas is that it’s too flexible and moves when you stretch it and I wanted something very solid. I was also going to have to use a collage technique of sticking things onto whatever surface I was going to use and I thought that plywood would be easier.
Can you describe your use of symbols?
I always use symbols when I work; I think maybe a lot of artists here do. Basically the symbols are to do with the distinction between kastom and non-kastom. Kastom is taken to mean anything that has aspects of, or any aspect that represents the pre-European past, like the indigenous culture of Vanuatu. Kastom is obviously made to be a distinct thing from anything that is not kastom, which has aspects of the post European contact history of Vanuatu. For example money or cash, or even the church, christianity or things like their clothes and so on are not kastom.
In all the work I do I try to create images of Vanuatu, pictures that I’m interested in. All my work is based around Vanuatu themes. I don’t do anything that isn’t. Always I want to represent the fact that this conflict exists in everything. Everything that happens in Vanuatu has the kastom and non-kastom side. So you have to find symbols for them and how they interact. That’s a lot of my art, and all the other artists’ work here in Vanuatu. All the contemporary artists have aspects of both in their drawings and their art.
For me, I use a motif of a face from a drum, a slit-gong. and also Black Power figures that they carve on my island. I’m very conscious about using things that I have a right to use. I don’t use symbols from other islands that belong to other groups of people. But you’ll find that many of the contemporary artists in Vanuatu today, and most of them have contributed to this exhibition, do use symbols from other islands which aren’t really theirs. But they use them in the terms of a national idea of kastom. When they use it, for example, they use an image of a face from another island where they’re not from, to represent kastom in a national context. Artists have got into trouble for doing that, and it’s something they have got to be careful about. I totally avoid it at all costs.
I just try not to use anything at all, any traditional design that doesn’t come from my area. So I stick to a certain range of options that I can use to represent kastom when I do any designs. At the same time there’s a different range of options that I can use from the non-kastom side. Obviously a wider range because there aren’t really these issues of copyright that I have to be sensitive about.
Can you describe your development as an artist?
Nowadays I do very little painting. . My whole reputation as an artist is based on works that I did five years ago. That was the last time I did any kind of art at all. This is an opportunity to do something again, and revive this idea that I may be an artist.
I have no formal art training. I did standard development studies, a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Australian University. My interest in art comes from primary and high school where I did art. I did it as an elective subject for my final two years of high school. While I was at university I continued to do a bit of art, because at that stage I still had some time. I did designs for different aspects of university life. I did a lot of commissions at that time, designing posters or doing artwork
I did my final years of high school in Australia. My parents chose to send me, and I agreed because the standard was better. So I started at Malipo College and then did all the other years of my high school in Australia. It was an all boy’s school and I was there on my own so it was not really a good experience for me: it was the kind of people who went to that school, the rugby mentality. It was very exclusive and it really affected me.
After I left there and I went to university I made sure that I went somewhere as far, far away from there. I went to high school in Brisbane so I went to Canberra University. That was enjoyable for me. I did a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Archaeology and Development Studies: not really art related at all
After coming out of university and starting my first year of work, I still didn’t have too much of a high powered job so I was able to continue doing a series of pictures. These were drawings, ink on paper that I did to illustrate legends from oral histories from my island of Uripiv on Malekula. The idea was that in collaboration with a translator, working on my island to actually publish these traditions in vernacular with the ink on paper illustrations. They aren’t finished because after eighteen months I got this job and I became too busy so it’s still in progress.
To date I’ve only done oil painting and acrylic on canvas, pencil sketches and portraits. I’ve also done ink on paper, stylised sort of stories. I’ve got lots of ideas but I haven’t had time to explore any of them at this stage.
Can you describe your job at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and the National Museum?
I started working at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and National Museum in 1994. I had worked for a year previously with the Cultural and Historic Sites survey. Then when I started at the Cultural Centre, I worked at the Museum with the exhibition of traditional artefacts. By the end of the next year I had become acting director. The Cultural Centre is actually four different institutions so I’ve been very busy. All the national cultural heritage and management is done from here. The National Museum, National Library, National Film and Sounds Library and Historic Sights are all under my Directorship.
Unfortunately most of my work is to do with administration, and increasingly fund raising. We also focus on the side of research into aspects of traditional cultures. Finding out what existed before and how it’s changing. As the main and only contemporary art/ traditional culture/ general culture institution in the country we get involved with all aspects of what you would call culture. We stage contemporary art exhibitions; we work in the islands with people who are working with traditional cultures and ceremonies, filming and tape recording oral traditions. We are doing a lot of research into environmental management and how it worked traditionally. We’ve got a project researching traditional justice and how that worked.
Basically there’s a wide range of things going on here and I’ve got to know about all of them. I’m involved with making things happen. Just keeping tabs on everything that goes on takes up more than 100% of my time. So that’s why I was saying earlier that I don’t have time for anything else artistically. Like I really want to!
Back to Exhibition home page
See
the revision questions
My idea behind this picture is our future. To me our future is based on the past, and our past is based on our culture. So based on our cultural heritage and our cultural knowledge, we can enter the future.
In this picture I have expressed an aspect of our cultural heritage that is copyright. We cannot directly create or copy those designs but we can get inspiration from those images and create new ones.
I have stylised all the traditional designs. You can see the face of a split-drum/ slit- gong. You can also see a pig’s tusk, a rock design and a footprint. The footprint symbolises standing in your own culture so that you can enter the future which is the bright space. The namele leaf is the bridge so that we can speak to each other. It symbolises staying in the past so that you can enter the future. That is how we can communicate.
There is also a shoe print. The shoe print steps on from the footprint as it steps into the future. So knowing our cultural heritage and our cultural knowledge we can enter the new world, which is the modern world.
I started doing art when I was a child. I didn’t have any art at school. I taught myself with books. I had a few art classes in secondary school but only one hour a week. It wasn’t enough but I learnt a lot from books.
In 1984 and 1985 I went to study in Paris. I had an opportunity to visit all the museums and art galleries and I learnt a lot from the art works there. I also had a chance to study in Basle and learnt to use a press for handmade paper and for printing. I spent three months in Basle and I worked on my art everyday. Everyday I created something and that was wonderful. It was a very good feeling.
I paint regularly but with painting you need inspiration before you can do any artwork. Otherwise you have to be relaxed. I went to the river yesterday and got some ideas. I took notes and made sketches. I generally use acrylic and gouache paint but I don’t use oil paint. It’s slower and I like to work fast.
After I’ve finished the sketch, I put it aside until I’ve got a whiteboard then I work directly from the sketch. Sometimes it changes. Once you begin the painting you can see something else, so you have to change it according to what’s going on.
Sometimes I have got an idea of the colours I am going to use so I write them on the sketch. However, sometimes it changes when I start painting. In my paintings I try to express how hot Vanuatu is. So the colours are hot. The sky is blue here, but in our culture blue is hard to make. So I cannot use blue even though the people in the western world like to be in Vanuatu because of the blue sky. I choose a hot colour because here it really is hot.
I also get inspiration from rock art. There is a lot of rock art here. Some of them are in caves, some by the seacoast. I went to Erromango for a field trip and saw some rock art designs. I have used them in my own way in different places.
In Vanuatu we have an association of modern contemporary artists. For me, the association is symbolic of a keyhole that we can use to open a new door which is contemporary art.
Back to Exhibition home page
See
the revision questions
Before I worked in clay I used to paint and draw. That is where I started my artwork. At high school we used to paint and draw, not formally in a class, but as an activity out of class. During weekends we sat around and painted, sketched and drew from objects, or landscapes, or anything.
By 1986 I was training to be an art teacher. The Australian Government gave me a scholarship so I went to study at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. That is where I learnt the art of pottery. I decided to do pottery because fibre art, that’s part of our culture, but ceramics are dying out, so maybe I had better do pottery.
I started with pinch pots, then I did a bit of throwing using the wheel. I learnt to make coil pottery and techniques like burnishing to get a smooth surface. I also learnt a bit about sawdust firing. The problem was that when I came back to Vanuatu I found that there was no clay and no ceramic materials and I stared to forget about ceramics and clay.
Then in 1991 I had another chance under the same scholarship scheme so I went back and did a Masters degree in art. I choose ceramics to be one of my major subject areas. I became quite confident working with clay and was doing bigger pieces. At the end of the course I had an exhibition and had made twenty-seven pieces about 50cm to 60cm high.
When I came back to Vanuatu I still had difficulties until I met another potter, an Australian called Bill Bolton. He was living next door to me but I didn’t meet him until we both exhibited in the same exhibition in Port Vila. He taught me to make a simple kiln at home, using fibre. Then we designed a rakau kiln that is fired by gas. That’s what I have used up to the present time.
The theme behind all my work is tradition. It is contemporary work based on the traditional. All my work has symbolic meanings. I have used wood and pig’s tusks with my pottery. The wood represents the family and the pig’s tusks represent the family. The pig’s tusks are a symbol of value. The chief normally wears the pigs’ tusks for status. When the pig’s tusks curve around in a complete circle it has a very high value.
At the moment I’m the Principal of the Training College as well as a teacher. I’m trying to get the students to realise that art is a part of the culture and is important: something that they should learn. I try to enforce students to turn away from westernised ideas. I try to enforce students to get to the Cultural Centre and other centres like the Archive to see the traditional art and find the symbolic meanings and their use.
There are only two potters in Vanuatu, me and my friend Sylvester Bulesa. Sylvester is more involved with the wheel. I don’t work with the wheel and the reason I don’t work with the wheel is that I feel the wheel is controlling me as an artist. If I’m working with coiling I’m controlling the clay.
When I’m coiling the clay and I can do anything with the clay shape because it’s done by hand. Everything done by hand is original.
I’m trying to get a contemporary Lapita pot: the shape of the Lapita. The technique I use here is a terracotta pot and when you fire it, it becomes red. But the pigment I use before I fire it is the red ochre. I mix it with some clay and brush it over the back of my pot and burnish it with the back of a spoon. When I complete it I leave it for a couple of days to dry then I hand design, using something sharp, scraping off and engraving different designs.
Some of my work is based on a precious stone that is found after the death of a member of the family, say a mother or father. Then it is most likely that a member of the family finds the stone around the yard or maybe in the bush or by the seashore. The most likely piece has a hole in the middle so that you can hang it up. It is believed to be a gift from the deceased to thank the members of the family for their care while they were alive. This tradition is called ‘fatu kanu’ and it’s a carved stone that’s found on my island, Futuna. One or two other islands, Tanna and Aniwa, have the same meaning.
If you find one without a hole it means that someone is going to die. Maybe in a year’s time, or a month, or weeks’ time, one of your relatives is going to die. If it’s already got a hole it means it’s from someone who’s already dead.
Another theme I have used for my pottery has been gender equity. We feel that men and women have separate status. Women normally have a more lowly status, where as men can make their way up. It has do to with the status of their leaders. In Vanuatu we have social status where a High Chief has got different ranks. You make your way up by killing pigs. A certain number of pigs to get to a certain rank.
In modern society where education comes, we have equal opportunities, men and women, in jobs or education. In kastom , normally we regard women as the lower grade but today with education everyone is equal.
Back to Exhibition home page
See
the revision questions
Staff member at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre
 |
On my home island Ambae, in the
north of Vanuatu, weaving is one of those activities that
women grow up with. It’s part of their lives. When I grew up I saw my mother weaving. I watched her get the pandanus leaves to weave the mats. When she goes to get her leaves, because I am interested, I follow her around. There wasn’t any pre- school so that was my school. I followed my mother around and whatever she did I too wanted to do it. That was the same for all girls my age during the 1950’s and 1960’s. As my mother prepares the pandanus and she begins to weave, she sees my interest and teaches me to weave. That’s what every mother does when the girls are ready to learn to weave. We get the pandanus leaves from the tree, bend it slightly, break it into pieces and drown it in water for the night. We put it in the sun for several days. It is white after it has been in the sun we shred it to make it softer and open out the leaves properly. Once the pandanus is flexible you can use it anytime. We weave the mats flat, on the ground. We can weave them at any time and any place. We make fine mats in the north of Vanuatu. In the south they make big mats. There are different sizes and different types and different colours and patterns. In my island, Ambae, we have seven different types of mats and they all have different uses. Some mats are for exchange. They are like money because we didn’t have a currency so we traded with mats. Some mats are used for the kastom ceremonies and dancing. Some mats are tabu that are used for our grade taking. We have to learn to do certain things before we get access to money mats. Grade taking mats are different to money mats. They are small and the patterns are more important in grade taking mats. We have to pay for the rights before we can use these patterns. When you wear one of these mats it indicates that you have been doing certain things in kastom ceremonies. The mats are stored in baskets. Each woman has her own basket: her bank! They used to call it the bank because anytime they needed to get mats to exchange or buy anything they used their mats. The mats are not very strong so we have to keep them close to the fire all the time so insects don’t get into them. |
In different parts of Vanuatu, different fibres or leaves are used for weaving and the baskets all have different uses. The baskets made from coconut leaves are used for carrying cooked or uncooked food to store in the house.
| Some mats have tassels on the side
and some have them on the bottom. These are there so that
you can put them around your waist and tie them on the
sides. The thicker mats are worth more than the fine
mats. They are money mats so the thicker ones have more
value. The colours are painted on but in some cases the
colour is woven in as well as painted on. We use Chinese
paint. We have our own paints but it takes a long time to
use these and the plant is dying away and becoming scarce
so now we mostly use Chinese paint. The patterns belong to everybody as long as you have the right to use the mat. Different patterns have different kastom steps. You have to learn from those who know the steps and you have to pay to learn. We believe in our kastom that if you learn something and you don’t pay, you won’t know how and it won’t come to you. All the time you have to give something to receive something back. |
 |
Some mats have tassels on the side and some have them on the bottom. These are there so that you can put them around your waist and tie them on the sides. The thicker mats are worth more than the fine mats. They are money mats so the thicker ones have more value. The colours are painted on but in some cases the colour is woven in as well as painted on. We use Chinese paint. We have our own paints but it takes a long time to use these and the plant is dying away and becoming scarce so now we mostly use Chinese paint.
The patterns belong to everybody as long as you have the right to use the mat. Different patterns have different kastom steps. You have to learn from those who know the steps and you have to pay to learn. We believe in our kastom that if you learn something and you don’t pay, you won’t know how and it won’t come to you. All the time you have to give something to receive something back.
Back to Exhibition home page
See
the revision questions
Kastom mats in the
New Traditions exhibition
by Jean Tarisesei
 |
Ambae mat: Moon design Its common name is ‘qwan vivi’. This special one is used as clothes. It was used before there were clothes. It was used as every-day clothes by women who wrapped it around their bodies. Men wore it between the legs with the ends hanging over the front and behind. This mat was made by Harrison Hango of Lolohihi village, Longana, East Ambae. |
Ambae mat: Sun design Its common name is ‘qwan vulvulu’. It is a bigger mat and long enough for a man to sleep on one end and to fold the other end to use as a blanket. It was also used to cover up the dead. This is the way it was used by our ancestors (bubu). It can also be used as ‘money’ in exchange for other goods. This mat was made by Irene Dini of Leovonda village, Longana, East Ambae. |
 |
 |
Ambae mat: Tabu design Its common name is ‘Mataitalai’. It is used only as clothes or as a uniform during kastom pig-killing ceremonies. A man has to pay rights to posses the mat or be entitled to use the mat. This mat was made by Army Wesly of Namalanga village, Longana, East Ambae. |