PUSI URALE - MAFINE EXHIBITION
“I want to tell old people you don’t just have to sit there and wait until you die. Do something fun!”
Proudly known as one of the world’s most unconventional Samoan women, Pusi Urale has also raised a notoriously unconventional family, who are some of the most successful artists and storytellers in Aotearoa.
Proudly known as one of the world’s most unconventional Samoan women, Pusi Urale has also raised a notoriously unconventional family, who are some of the most successful artists and storytellers in Aotearoa.
“Growing up in Savaii I also did the things I was curious about and I wasn’t scared to do what I wanted to do. I was the only woman who would go fishing with the men, sometimes at night I was pulling myself into a canoe..”
Fearlessness and curiosity have propelled Pusi into new directions in her art. A practice she took up in her later life, Pusi went to night classes over a number of years to learn different style of art making.
The long time teacher in Wellington also started up her own Tapa art making course, translating everything she was learning into her own unique Pacific voice.
Now the storyteller, artist, grandmother, and matriarch of a family that has changed the face of the NZ arts scene, has a new exhibition, new visual stories and new ways of telling them.
Also in this new decade, Pusi has re invented her art style to include pointillism and geometric cubist techniques to convey her visual stories of Samoan culture.
The vibrant riot of canvases are a reflection of Pusi herself, and the colorful and extraordinary life she has led.
With titles like ‘Ua fa’ali’i’ ‘Lo’omatua Ote’ the paintings capture moments of different women at different stages of life and emotion, and the titles themselves become part of the storytelling experience.
She tells the stories of taking her husband to life drawing classes and laughing at the naked palagis, of learning different techniques of art making and the need to constantly evolve and be inspired.
“I tell people you know you can have a Picasso on your wall but now you can have a Pusi on your wall“
Pusi was a finalist in the annual Wallace Art Awards in 2017 and she has had a piece included in the NZ Academy of Fine Arts - a place she remembers approaching 3 times over a number of years.
“I asked them why they wouldn’t take my work and they said you have to be invited- I said why not invite me? Then finally they invited me last year”
The 82 year old gets up and paints from 9am onwards everyday, saying:
“When your older it doesn’t mean you can’t have a quality of life and be inspired by new things everyday..”
Click here for full details on the exhibition which is on until the 1st of March at Te Uru Contemporary Gallery in Waitakere