Polynesian tapa-making showcased in display at OSU-Newark
Two years ago, a dozen or so women in the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga gathered at a long table to create an indigenous art form known as a or tapa.
Day after day, they rubbed yards and yards of bark cloth across a handmade, ink-covered template, etching traditional Polynesian designs onto the fabric.
With the cloth measuring 81 feet in length by 12 feet in width, the project took about a month to complete.
A segment (still wall-length, though) of that massive work sits 7,300 miles away from its origin — as the centerpiece of “The Art of Ngatu: Tradition, Innovation and Community in Polynesia” on the Newark campus of Ohio State University.
The show, which continues through May 1, was originally co-curated for Denison University by Joanna Grabski, who taught art history there at the time, and Marcus Boroughs, a New Zealand native living in Granville.
The tapa and other examples of the Polynesian art form were displayed at Denison for two weeks in April.
Through his work in New Zealand museums before moving to Ohio, Boroughs befriended renowned New Zealand painter Robin White, who has spent the past 17 years working alongside women in villages throughout the islands of Polynesia to create tapas. White designed, oversaw the construction of and collaborated with Tongan women, including artist Ruha Fifita, for the piece being shown in Newark.
“This work is from a completely different area,” said Boroughs, who also set up the OSU-Newark exhibit. “It’s an unusual link to bring Polynesian art to Ohio, but it’s worked really well.”
White said the two Ohio shows mark the first in the United States for her tapa work.
“It’s always really interesting when your work extends beyond your borders,” said the 71- year- old artist, currently embedded in a village in Lautoka, the second largest city in Fiji.
“I like working with indigenous women who are skilled in their own particular areas, and I can come at it with my own perspective. I like working in the space between cultures.”
She hopes the American exhibits shed light on tapa making as well as the area of the world she calls home.
Boroughs said the exhibit was designed as a “teaching exhibition,” meaning that even though there are only two tapas to view (the one made by White, titled “Along the Avenue,” and an older Tongan piece she bought), visitors can see photos and watch At a glance
■ “The Art of Ngatu: Tradition, Innovation and Community in Polynesia” is on display at the LeFevre Art Gallery, 1199 University Drive, on the Newark campus of Ohio State University. The free exhibit runs through May 1. The gallery is open during regular school hours.
a video to learn how White and the Polynesian women created the pieces.
Also featured are examples of the kupesi, the handmade stencillike tool used to create the designs. One of them is a more primitive kupesi made by villagers from coconut shells; White’s version from “Along the Avenue,” which can be reused, was made from fine can.
“A lot of work goes into just the kupesi,” Boroughs said. “Robin and her designs have some sort of meaning and aren’t just pretty designs. They’re religious, social and political.”
White said she strives to put a contemporary spin and social context on the traditional art form.
Of the current piece she is creating, she said: “It’s a more Western feel but with the Fijian sensibility of pattern. I view collaborating as making something that we wouldn’t have been able to make on our own.”
Tapa fabric comes from the fibrous inner layer of the bark of a mulberry tree, Boroughs said. It’s beaten into sheets and has all sorts of uses in Polynesia — from diapers and blankets to the more elaborately designed pieces for ceremonial garb and even a form of currency.
“It has value,” Boroughs said. “Say your cousin gets married; you will cut off a square of your tapa and give it to them. These women get together, and a lot of love and energy have gone into it.”
Women within a particular village gather regularly to make tapas, and, when one is finished, they give it to someone in the group.
“It’s an amazingly orchestrated event,” White said. “Everyone has to have one.”
The opportunity to expose OSU students to art and people from a different area of the world is what interested John Low, an associate professor at OSU-Newark, in the display. His research specializes in American Indian studies.
“The exhibit had a powerful narrative of indigenous women from various islands reconnecting with and reviving past practices in both art and community,” said Low, who helped bring White’s work to the college. “I loved the idea that generally these are so large and there are so many steps that nobody makes them by themselves.”
Though a simple art form, Low said, the tapas are amazingly intricate and employ incredible indigenous technology.
For example, the artists use as a brush a nut with hair on it to paint over some of the designs to highlight them.
Boroughs hopes the exhibit will be shown elsewhere throughout Ohio and beyond.
“A lot of people who have come through have been fascinated by it,” he said. “It’s beautiful to have it all displayed like that.”