MOANA ARTS PROFILE - KALISOLAITE 'UHILA

Born in Tonga, ‘Uhila’s art practice centres on live performance, in which the expression of his ideas take place, unrehearsed, in gallery spaces and other locations outside of a traditional theatre environment.

His path to becoming a performance artist began as a print-maker studying at Auckland University of Technology. Studying a visual arts degree, he realised that he did not need paper to make a print but could bring image and sound together. He started to use his body as a tool and his first performance was using an antique saw to make marks on wood.

For his masters he explored the time aspect of ‘social structures and relationships’. His thesis was titled Maumau-taimi: Wasting Time; Being Useless. Exploring perspectives of wasting time versus time well wasted in the field of art together with an ongoing study of the construction of performance to understand the patterns and language hidden inside Body, which he recreates in his own contemporary art of performance art from past and future into the present.

*Source: The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi

#DigitalMoanaArts is a series of Pasifika artists profiles that looks at the exciting work of a multitude of different artists across the Moana. This series of video pieces creates its own digital tapestry of some of the artistic vision, commentary and creative expression in our region.