Page 33 - Fiji Traveller Issue 3

The Red Wave pioneer still

challenging himself

Mason Lee

By Max Cross didn’t know how to do, because they were just playing around
and joking and doing nothing. My teaching myself how to do
Mason James Lee has been a leading light in Fiji’s art what interested me had to come before I could teach myself to
scene since his first exhibition in 2000. The self-taught, award- paint. If we have money or no money, you must know how to
winning painter, muralist and interior designer, is of Chinese live. If you're just a painter and doing nothing else, then you’re
and iTaukei heritage. Born and raised in Suva, Mason feels not really a true artist. To be an artist is to know your whole
a deep connection with his paternal family land in Bua on the surroundings.”
island of Vanua Levu, somewhere he visited often as a child. Several years ago, Lee was invited to join a group of artists
Best known for his fine art paintings, Lee is not confined by at the University of the South Pacific’s Oceania Centre for Arts
colour, composition, value, form, brushwork, or perspective. and Culture. The late Dr Epeli Hau’ofa, the highly respected
Working in oil, acrylic, enamel, slate, charcoal, pencil, ink, and and deeply impactful Oceania Centre Director, included Lee in
more, often mixing materials and form in the same piece, Lee an artist’s collective which became known as the Red Wave.
depicts a juxtaposition of the unseen and the seen. Mixing The group of painters and sculptors, who worked out of, or had
the natural world above and beneath the waves is a common close ties to OCAC, encouraged and nurtured an appreciation
feature. Portraits of individuals, often women and children, and pride in indigenous Pacific identity, images, culture, and
have a sense of realism and even hyper realism, while abstract its capacity.
human forms intertwine in many of his images. Lee’s first exhibition was at the Oceania Centre. In the 20
Playing with perspective and depth in layers, Mason uses years since then, his work has hung from walls in celebrated
colour to bind and unify multiple worlds. In one piece on display galleries around the globe. Still, Lee remains ambitious and
at the week-long Savusavu Art and Fashion Festival held at continues to strive for growth as an artist.
Daku Resort in March 2023, a traditional Fijian masi (tapa) “I know I have to challenge myself and show my work
pattern formed one section, representing the ocean floor, with overseas. There are thousands and thousands of artists who
a realistic fish as the central subject above. In another artwork, are better than me, who are greater than me. Right now, the
abstract and colourful human forms represent the complexity biggest thing I think about is [that] I need to do something
of self, and sit alongside a realistic portrait of a woman, giving that will speak about me and stands out when exhibited with
the impression that these abstract figures form her secret self, international artists at that highest level. I've been to London
her fears, and her desires, with more space allotted to the and have been exhibited in Germany, USA, New Zealand,
inner and unknown elements than the outwardly seen. Australia and nearly all of the Pacific. I’ve shown pieces in
Lee’s father was an artist, working with sculpture, fabric and China, but I do not feel I am where I need to be, creatively.
watercolours. However Lee rejects the notion that he became “I'm moving away from my previous work. I'm trying to move
an artist because he emulated his father. Seeing a parent in a way that I know will be different from anyone else. It's not
use their time to paint and create when you are a child will about the colour or the subject that I choose. It's about the
inspire and influence, however, Mason sees his vocation as comfort that I choose. It is not about what appeals to people,
something more. or what people find pleasing. What I’m doing right now is what
“There can be one thousand artists in one room, all doing appeals to me.”
a lot of things, drawing, or painting, but out of the thousand,
there can only be one true artist within. It's about the way you Mason James Lee is on Instagram @masonjameslee.
live. Your mind needs to be independent. I taught myself many Lee has artwork for sale and accepts commissions. He can be
things, not just to paint and draw but to swim, to go diving. At reached at masonjameslee@gmail.com
a young age I had taught myself to do things people my age

33