MEET THE MAKER
This mother and daughter duo create contemporary artworks using traditional tapa art techniques
Tongan heritage plays a leading role in a mother-daughter duo’s work.
You might do a double take when you have a closer look at the beautiful ngatu, or tapa cloth, artworks created by Tui Emma Gillies and her mother Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows – their latest pieces were made during and after last year’s Covid-19 lockdown and reflect the tumultuousness of the era: people wear facemasks, while a trio of paintings, Voyagers 1, 2 and 3, show vaka sailing through mountainous seas. “They are representative of all of us voyaging through challenging times, heading towards an uncertain but hopefully calmer future,” Tui explains. Sulieti, who moved to New Zealand from Falevai, Tonga, with her late Kiwi husband Barry in the 1970s, continued to practise the artistic traditions she’d learned from her elders and passed these onto Tui; the pair work on feta’aki, or plain tapa cloth, from the bark of the paper mulberry tree, and use umea, or dye, made from red earth; Indian ink; acrylic paint; and kupesi, or stencils, made from coconut leaf midribs to create their works, while tapioca is used as a natural glue to join the sheets of tapa together. Tui says they feel culturally and spiritually connected to these mostly traditional materials which honour their ancestors and help to keep the art practice alive. The modern take on this ancient art form has a different purpose too. “We use our knowledge to highlight contemporary issues that we believe need to be addressed.” See Tui and Sulieti’s work at Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, from 28 August to 18 September and at tuiemmagillies.com.