‘Kudru’, an exhibition confronting Fiji’s political and societal rumblings continues at the Fiji Arts Council gallery in central Suva this week.
Curated by Larry Thomas, this is the third iteration of Kudru, and features six artists working in vastly different styles.
Speaking at the recent opening, Thomas said “Kudru is about discontent, and I use that as a metaphor for what I call rumblings, the rumblings not only happening in this country, but also globally.
“When you open the papers, you read the news, there’s always some catastrophe happening around the world, and that’s just the state of the world globally. We can’t change that. We have to just accept it for what it is, but what does it tell us personally? How does it influence us in our thinking? And for me, Kudru is about raising the awareness of what’s happening, but also how to change our perception, or the perception of our society, to be more caring, to be more kinder, to be more loving, compassionate, in spite of the discontent, of the anger ,of the horrors that we see.”
The works on display include Susie Elliott’s many- layered diptych of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, an ocean landscape from Ulamila Bulamaibau depicting a ship graveyard in Lami and the still beautiful marine life that lies beneath, Atueta Rabuka’s wounded and painted mats, and works by Anare Somumu that marry images and text to spotlight the problems of violence, drug use and corruption.
Like Somumu, Kudru veteran Irami Buli works with text and imagery to address the tensions between tradition and ambition, politics and poetry, and Lingikoni Vaka’uta uses refined traditional imagery to make subtle statements.
Thomas says of the work presented: “This is their protest; this is their story. This is their narrative of what they see happening.”
“We think part of our soul goes into a painting,’ artist Ulamila Bulamaibau said at the opening.
“We have a role to play in society. We have things to say, and those things need to be heard.”
Kudru is on until October 24, weekdays only.
