Journeys through time: from Hawaii to Aotearoa to Ausetalia
Michel Tuffery
7 September to 11 October 2025
Conversations with the past, whanau, and the fragile environment underpin this journey through time by Michel Tuffery - a story of being human and connected in other ways, in a technological world. History flows through into the present day, in this leading Pacific-NZ artist’s use of precious tapa fragments laid onto paper. He allows some of the original lines and drawings on the Ngatu (tapa cloth), as well as the texture, to come through in his overlay of painting, in what he describes as ‘a collaboration with the past’. (For more on the exhibition, see below).
Ancient Lapita pottery shards from Pacific history become a metaphor in Michel Tuffery’s paintings for the fragility of our environment, pieced together again as a foundation for other motifs of the natural world. The Lapita vessel motif deliberately teeters on a fine point of balance. Finding taonga goes back to his childhood visits to museums, initiating a fascination with archaeology and anthropology; now, Tuffery has personal connections with major museums internationally, and rare invitations to view and handle precious taonga first hand.
It’s not just about sight, touch and sound. There’s the first smell, a flower over an ear, or coconut oil, as he steps off the plane onto Pacific homeland, greeted by family; or the aroma of taro or kumara signalling home. He uses the original palette of tapa woodblock, overlaid with the moana (ocean) blue, and vivid greens of nature, promising revival.
Human beings are what we touch, he says – like the digital world and the phone; or the plants and ancient stones. Tuffery holds out an ancient black volcanic rock, from Hawaii. This USB stick carries memory, of generations, places, identity and origin, an enduring place in the world.