Do not Alter artists

Lealofitaute Vaai

Series title: Comprimising, install shot by Jasmine Tuiā

“Ia malu le vai i lou finagalo” - May your mind be like cool water. 

 

Si o ta alofa atu, My name is Lealofitaute Vaai, and I am a creative from Manurewa, South Auckland. I'm from the villages of Sataua, Asau, Paia, Fagaloa, Tuaefu, and Malifa, in Samoa. 

 

This work represents the artist's journey through loss and grief towards love and light. Looking at her adversities with grief in a traditional Samoan household where emotions are an unspoken part of us that deem to exist yet daring to be explored, she uses photography to acknowledge her heedless efforts to reclaim emotional and mental agency. Photography is an outlet for her growth, reclamation, and becoming, breaking away from the traditional Samoan way of using humor or sarcasm as a veneer. 

 

"Ia malu le vai I lou finagalo" is a Samoan proverb that translates to "may your mind  be like cool water." The proverb is often used to ask an offended person for forgiveness; however, Lealofitaute uses the proverb as a guide for redefining agency and seeking self-forgiveness." - @tautevaai 

 

When Taute first submitted her works, I was pretty surprised with how she approached our exhibition’s concept of agency, and I mean that in a good way. When we hear the term agency, one can agree that we immediately draw on our sense of strength, stability, and power. Looking specifically at porn brown's past work/artists, my notions of “agency” revolved around these perceptions and their contexts: artistic space, institutional resistance, and identity reclamation. With Taute's work, there is an honest shift from that. She explains her movement around loss and towards good, representing the in-between and the adversities of her course. The artwork reinforces the personal and raw realities of the agencies that drive her journey. It challenges the power and stability of agency as ongoing work of acceptance and flow rather than a destination. Her series encompasses the celebration of reclamation and resistance and looks at the agency as a guide to define the multi-layered purpose of overcoming and becoming. 

 

In this series of photographs, Taute purposefully places her subject under tint, blue light, just enough light to emphasize the surrounding sensibility of her mental and physical journey. These are the moments I was able to grasp, though I enjoyed her speaking about it from a place of healing and acceptance. With the photographs at eye-level, sitting above the rusty steel of the decaying basement structure, Taute’s photographs permeate feelings of certainty and rigor, normalizing the challenges that come with experiencing light alongside grief.

 

As a friend, I was very impressed with how she observed and grounded herself in a new creative space. A few often find it tricky to step into new spaces and know what to do, or in this case, create! Taute check-ins were easy as I felt she was set on her vision and bringing it to life. I worked alongside Taute as a mentor, and she has the perfect balance of work and play, but for this big show, Taute put her play to work! As her former colleague and now friend, I was incredibly proud to see her reclaim the mental spaces she speaks of in her work. Her willingness to learn and her courage to share her story has been nothing but a privilege to witness. She was thrown into a den of uncertainty, and she ran with it, served, and dipped with no leftovers. I am excited to see you grow in your practice and look forward to more collaborations. Proud of you! You've reminded me of the importance of vulnerability in our artistic practices. Thank you for trusting me and our space!