Carving A Path

Tui Hobson, Artist (Photo: S. Magick)

The winner of the Martin Hughes Contemporary Pacific Art Award last year, she received a travel allowance to visit Cook Islands and Samoa. This enabled Hobson to meet and photograph sculptors and carvers in those countries, and meet family members.

Hobson has been carving since she was very young and is the daughter of a cabinet maker. "I used carving to express myself when I was growing up. Then I got very interested in expressing myself creatively."

Originally from Wellington, she has taken 15 years to "get to this point" as an artist. Some of those years were very difficult, she had to live off the land, and she lived on the streets, "and I started to ask the land for help."

"I don't feel alone when I am carving. For a long time I carved what was happening in my life, (but now I) like carving just emotion, I like the abstract."

Hobson uses a variety of tools including chainsaws and chisels, and works mainly in wood. Her sculptures have a smooth, tactile quality. One- Pacific Memories-is in the center of Tokaroa. "I did it for people like mum, in Tokaroa, for Pacific People who don't return to Rarotonga or the islands. It's my memory of Rarotonga and it can be your memory too."

In the Cook Islands she had a tattoo, sampled "bush beer", witnessed the local elections and spent time with her family, in particular her aunt Lynssey Rongokea, a local artist and writer, who has produced an authoritative book on the art of tivaevae.

She says one of the greatest things about the journey was the "feeling of belonging."

Since her return, "seeing the huge emphasis on the traditional patterns and mythology in the local carving has made me aware of how exciting modern Pacific carving in New Zealand is, as artists have had the freedom to draw on this background and yet explore their own contemporary style."

"It was a real confidence booster in terms of the prize …and it was also good to be identified as a Pacific Islander," she says.