Tongan Art

• Drawing, Painting and collograph printing

• Key words: Textile, Pattern, Line, Shape, Artefact, contemporary, tapa

• Artists:Ahota’ei’loa Toetu’u, Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi

Learning objectives

• To know how to create an effective and creative title page with motifs/designs/tapa

• To be able to capture Tongan art in your work and develop an understanding of Tongan artefacts

• To understand how to draw accurately and effectively to create a title page

Key words• Tongan Art: The most popular art

forms are sculpture, body adornment, canoes, clubs, containers, tools, textiles, matt making and tapa art. There are also decorative arts and textiles that inspire Tongan culture.

• Motif: A recurring form or shape in a design or pattern

• Tapa: The art of Tapa making is still widely practiced in Tonga. The sound of women making tapa is heard throughout the island. Groups of women have formed ngatu making clubs that specialize in mass production of ngatu pieces for traditional and ceremonial purposes. Most are sold to overseas Tongans who remain true to Tongan customary practice of koloa or gift giving

Tongan Motifs/Tapa

Tapa cloth Manulua

fataotuitonga Bark cloth printing

Artefacts from Tonga

Tongan stool, made of wood Tongan Fan Tongan masks

Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi

• using classic patterns – some with traditional sacred hues and others with exceptional infusions of colour.

• Tohi has identified a visual language based on lalava and what its patterns signify. He translates and expands this language into larger, two and three dimensional drawings, paintings and sculptures that allow viewers to enter and experience the nature of geometric patterns.

• Tohi states, “My work transforms the technology of the past into a modern representation of identity and experience.”

Ahota’ei’loa Toetu’u

• His seemingly traditional and minimalist painting style is firmly rooted in the Tongan visual language of ngatu (Tongan bark cloth) and lalava (coconut sennit lashing). Using repetition and illusion his work creates a dazzling effect on the eyes.

• ‘Ahota’ei’loa is a fourth year student studying to complete a Bachelor of Visual Arts through the University of Auckland at Manukau