By Kite Pareti
Fiji finally has a permanent home for the important and diverse paintings and artwork collected by the Fiji Arts Council, and its array of colourful creative art pieces will leave you inspired.
Located at the St Stephens Building in Suva, the National Art Gallery of Fiji has been in its new home for less than a year. After many false starts, work is underway to transform the building into a world-class facility for the arts.
The successful opening exhibition was an open call, which meant established artists were displayed alongside their young counterparts. Established Fijian artist, Irami Buli, says “a lot of big exhibitions are coming up and hopefully, we will have a big
celebration.”
Around 50 artists currently have their work displayed at the Art Gallery, Buli said.
“There’s a diversity of works here by artists of different styles, emerging and senior ones, who are very brilliant and talented.”
An enormous painting of Fijian statesman, the late Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, is one of Buli’s contributions to the Art Gallery.
He noted: “I worked on it with another famous artist, Anare Somumu. We were able to complete it a year ago.”
The painting was the centrepiece of Ratu Sukuna Day celebrations in May.
“When we were creating it last year, we talked about what he [Ratu Sukuna] had done. So basically, his writings were very important, his memoirs. And we actually captured his writings from his book, ‘The three-legged stool’. And the background itself is a motif of a mat that represents connectedness and the landscape of how Fiji has evolved over the years during the colonial times,” Buli explained.
“The drua [in the background of the painting] represents the journey. The drua is facing back or going back which means that in order to move forward, we have to look back in the past in order to gain that wisdom that our ancestors had.
“If you look closely at his eyes, there’s a sunset and sunrise. He’s looking at something that a lot of people would not see.
What I suggested to Anare was to put something in his eyes so that he’s actually looking at something we don’t see in his time.
He [Ratu Sukuna] was sort of like a man beyond his time. That is why we put the sunset and the sunrise and the canoes sailing to represent a new dawn and a new dusk,” he added.
Buli, who has been working as an artist for more than 20 years, believes art is a pathway that can “take you anywhere in the world” and “build a sustainable livelihood”.
“The time will come when Fiji will recognise art and its importance. It’s a type of therapy. It trains the mind. It trains the soul. It trains your humanity.”
