Overview
Tuffery is a Polynesian artist born in Wellington, New Zealand to a Samoan mother and Rarotongan and Tahitian father.
Tuffery works in a number of media including printmaking, posters, woodcuts, lithography, sculpture, set design and performance pieces. Explaining his choice to work in many media, he comments ’I’m fascinated by everything I see around me. I like to have a go, interpret how I see things, because if you don’t try you’ll never know.’ (1)
Tuffery draws on his Pacific Island heritage in his art practise. Awarded a MASPAC Queen Elizabeth II study grant in 1987, he travelled through the Pacific Islands numerous times running art workshops for local children and has visited Melanesia.
Visiting the Pacific Islands has helped Tuffery understand and value his Pacific heritage. ‘I used to hate the whole (Samoan) cultural thing’, says Tuffery. ‘I was really anti-fa‘a Samoa. What turned me around was going to Samoa. I wasn’t ashamed to be Samoan after that because now there were things to be proud of. But being born in New Zealand, that separation really makes it hard for us here to understand.’ (1)
Tuffery gained a Diploma of Fine Arts (Hons) from Otago Polytechnic in 1988 then undertook further study in Hawai‘i with the aid of a David Con Hutton Award Scholarship. In 1990 Tuffery took part in Te Moemoea no Iotefa - a group exhibition of South Pacific Art which toured the North Island. In 1993 Tuffery was invited to participate in the Tokyo International Print Show where he won second prize. In the same year he took part in the Asia Pacific Triennial, at Queensland Art Gallery, which purchased one of his sculptures.
In 1994 Tuffery designed the logo for the International Festival of the Arts where it appeared on billboards, banners, posters, brochures and a bus. He gave a solo exhibition at the Claybrook Gallery in Auckland in the same year.
In 1995 Tuffery took part in Bottled Ocean - an exhibition of works by New Zealand artists of Pacific Island descent which toured New Zealand. This exhibition featured his Pisupo lua afe (Corned Beef 2000) - an ironic and political work wryly commenting on the impact of global trade on Pacific Island cultures.
Tuffery is one of a number of New Zealand-born Pacific Islanders who reference their Pacific identity in their work whilst using European mediums. ‘We’re this third generation’, says the artist, ‘we were born here, in New Zealand. If you go to a new place you create a new culture, and that’s what we’re doing. I don’t think it’s a trend at all, it’s a coming to grips’. (1)
Art played a crucial part in Tuffery’s childhood as he is dyslexic, so he found it a way to communicate. ‘Drawing was an excuse not to write. Teachers would try and get me to write by saying that if I wrote a sentence they would let me draw on the other side of the page.’
Tuffery has an inclusive view of art and identity in the Pacific. He believes everyone ‘on these two islands’ (i.e. New Zealand) has a legitimate contribution to make in the exploration and expression of the unique Pacific identity.
Some of Tuffery’s work is political such as his anti-driftnet series and his Pisupo lua afe (Corned Beef 2000). ‘I don’t see anything wrong in having your say. I have used my work to make statements…’
References
(1) all quotes from interview with Michel Tuffery from Speaking in Colour, edited by Sean Mallon and Pandora Fulimalo Pereira (Te Papa Press, 1997)
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database.