Exhibition extended until July 14.
'World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbour – it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.'
Brave words from a dynamic young American President in 1963 as he attempted to avoid a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. In the context of a global society still coming to terms with the monstrous fallout of WW2, the insanity of the Korean War and staring down the barrel of yet another Asian conflict, Kennedy’s views seemed somewhat optimistic. And they were, echoed in a society repulsed by mass, senseless violence. The sixties, despite the advent of the Vietnam War, were all about peace, love and re-population.
Born in Mangere, Auckland in 1969, Andy Leleisi’uao is the son of the first wave of Samoan immigrants attracted to post world war New Zealand to fulfill drastic labour shortages in factories and freezing works. New Zealand was promoted as the land of milk and honey, a land of opportunity, but, in 1973, under the pressure of an economic downturn, political sentiment waned, and in a racist backlash against Pacific Island over stayers, the infamous dawn raids occurred. Police with dogs burst into homes in the early hours, Pacific people were randomly stopped in the street, Police showed up at places of work. In an all too familiar narrative, the economic woes of the time were blamed on immigrants. Although the raids ended in the late 1970’s, the relationship between Pacific Islanders and New Zealand was severely impacted.
The eighties were a fabulous decade for world contemporary culture. Today’s tech giants Apple and Microsoft were emergent. Reagan, Gorbachev and Thatcher were political rock stars, the Cold War was ending, CNN & MTV were born, popular music was reinvented and Hollywood generated blockbusters that redefined and influenced world popular culture for decades to come. It was a period that birthed an entire way of western life that this generation now fully takes for granted.
At school in South Auckland, Andy struggled with a mundane art curriculum. What was expected, what was taught, he just didn’t relate too. Pacific art had no place; young Pacific Islanders aspiring to be artists had no terms of Pacific art reference. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the MacMillan Brown Centre For Pacific Studies at Canterbury University was established by Professor Ron Crocombe to provide professional development for New Zealand/ Pacific Island artists.
Growing up in Mangere, as a first generation, Kiwi Samoan, had its own unique tribulations. For context socially, there were only three places for Pacific Islanders during 1980's New Zealand, in a factory, on the dole, or in prison. At home, ‘out of place’ Samoan cultural expectations were imposed on him, a contrast to the contemporary European values of the country to which he was born. But he wasn’t seen as a New Zealander. Nor did he consider himself a full Samoan, not in the traditional sense.
So, as best he could, he adopted both identities, he became what he describes as Kamoan, and he was free to do with it as he liked - and he had something to say.
First there was the rebellion. Explosive, emotive, eruptive canvases emerged in his Auckland shows Waking up to my Polynesian Spine (1997), The Brownest Dawn (1998) and in Sydney, the exhibition Furious, at Casula Powehouse with Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey. Furious was notable for Leleisi’uao’s less than subtle canvas Honest to God. Scrawled across the large red canvas are the words Samoan Born Minsters are Wankers. Depicted in the painting is a hostile church scene, with brown ministers in black clothing mercilessly shaking down their gullible, culturally displaced flock.
Over the next ten years, Andy delivered 20 new exhibitions notable amongst them Patterns of My Lavalava (1999), Crashed Presbyterian (2000), Tired of Silence (2001), My Samoan Accent (2001), The Ballad of Tinou’amea and Pepe (2004), Cheeky Darkie (2005), We’re Not Black (2005) and Lost Kamoans of the Godly and Godless (2006). In these exhibitions his themes and intentions are obvious, he shouts them from the canvas, confronting domestic violence, poverty, racism, unemployment and youth suicide, agonizing concerns faced by blue-collar Pacific Island, particularly Samoan, immigrants to New Zealand.
In 2003, the unmistakable influence of the 1980’s, his own cultural heritage and a keen intellect - began to manifest itself in the exhibition The Umu Collection of Titles and a new body of work, the UFOlogical. It is escapism in its purist form.
Blown off course in a massive storm, seven canoes discover an island where the remains of an alien civilization remain. Using the discovered alien technology, a new society of peaceful co-existence is created. Bright colours, and Island utopian societies evolved. Birds spelt out the word Peace in the sky. Peace, such an alien concept in a volatile world that repeatedly tries to destroy itself by any means necessary.
Within his UFOlogical paintings, new adventures emerged, new societies were created, new languages were spoken and an entire new set of values was born, as UFO’s watched from the horizon. Set against a rocking soundtrack of contemporary pop culture references, this was relief to his own anger, an answer to out of place cultural expectations placed upon him at home and common prejudice on the street.
In 2008, Andy delivered the exhibition, Angipanis of the Abanimal People, Andy stated,'The Angipanis of the Abanimal People reflect an inner reality that, I believe, is part of a continuous evolution which has always existed, it's simply been waiting for me to notice it. Using a combination of past and recent symbols that have appeared throughout my works, what has emerged is a surreal world of good and evil. This pictorial vocabulary demonstrates a spiritual confrontation, an inner world of constant instability and mystery, a world that merges and lingers in an ambivalence, reflecting my own angels and demons.'
And that world has rapidly expanded. Andy’s art had changed; the rebellion has evolved into a universal narrative of black and white, of reconciling the irreconcilable no matter where or what it is. He tells the story of what we can be as a species, regardless of our cultural stature, religious convictions, skin colour or sexual orientation.
The Angipani premise grew over the next ten years through the exhibitions Areatures of the Arctaur People (2009), Wandering Through Pandemonium Quiet (2010), Waking up to the Obscurity People (2014), Quaint People of Nuanua( 2015), Ubiquitous People of Erodipolis (2016) and his most recent series A Diasporic Pulse of Faith & Patience (2018) painted in NYC as part of his Wallace Arts Trust paramount residency award. But, along the way, the artist has returned to his more confrontational style, in the exhibitions Dandelion People (2012), Ghosts of a Second Samoan (2015) and An Unlovely Sorry (2017). He doesn’t do so to score points or demand retribution. ‘Lest we forget’ is perhaps a better way to understand what the artist wants us to understand. That the past can be acknowledged and learned from to create a better way of life, to do so, start with the man in the mirror.
In 2008, Andy was asked ‘Who is included in your definition of Kamoan?’ He replied, ‘Anyone. For me it’s the naked bridge, a truce between space and cultures. Originally, it encompassed New Zealand–born Samoans and those born in Samoa but raised in New Zealand, and now it also transcends mindsets, religion, spirituality, sexuality, ignorance, etc, and it will continue to evolve.’ To be Kamoan, is one value system recognizing another, learning to live with each other as Kennedy, and many like him have articulated.
Over two decades, Andy’s CV has grown to now total 79 solo presentations and 147 group projects.
During this time he has exhibited in Taipei, Rarotonga, Slovakia, Hungary, Australia, New York and throughout New Zealand. He has won awards and undertaken residencies.
His work is included in the permanent collections of the Pātaka Art + Museum; Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa; Auckland Art Gallery - Toi o Tāmaki; Chartwell Collection; New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; The Wallace Arts Trust; Auckland University; Canterbury University; Otago University; Manukau City; Pacific Business Trust; Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, and the Museum of Ethnography, Frankfurt.
Installations, Sculpture, Drawings and Paintings define his oeuvre, the best of which we have been able to locate, we present here to you now.
I hope you enjoy the experience. Ben Bergman.
