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On the cover

The colourful world of Hefrani Barnes

Our cover artist, Hefrani Barnes,
was the youngest artist to represent
Fiji at the Festival of Pacific Arts and
Culture in Hawaii this year, and the
only female visual artist.
Her twin works Bleached and Bloom,
are “based on coral bleaching and
loss of culture in the Pacific," Barnes
says. The mixed media works, which
combine oil and acrylic paint and
masi, leaped off the walls due to their
vibrancy, layers of meaning and detail,
and the textural interest provided by
the tapa and other synthetic materials
the artist used, including a bit of
bedazzling.
“Of course every painting speaks
for itself,” says Barnes, “but in this
case, this painting is a reflection. Right
now, there's a lot of climate change
and coral bleaching happening, and if
we're not careful, we will destroy not
only the earth, but people, our homes
and culture.”
Pointing to the more colourful half
of the diptych, she adds: “This is
our future if we’re really determined

to take away climate change and coral bleaching, our
future will look beautiful and stunning, just like this.”
Barnes merges elements of the natural world and
human figures in a kind of magic-realist way in many of
her paintings. In the case of these works, the eyes of the
figures depicted are nautilus shells which were “inspired
by a living fossil, which has lived through dinosaur ages,
way back, and still lives now. That living fossil has seen
so much of the damage that has happened to the Earth.”
Barnes' work can also be seen in Suva, on the beautiful
new mural on the corner of Des Voeux Road, which she
completed with experienced muralist and mentor, Jack
Eastgate, and another young artist, Mele Nabola.
That mural also has a positive message about the use
of technology to meet the challenges of climate change.
Hefrani Barnes is one of the talented local artists
working from Sigavou Studios at the VOU Hub in Nadi.
To learn more about what they do, see our feature on
Fiji galleries and art experiences in this issue of Fiji
Traveller.

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