TBI Q&A: Tanu Gago

Tanu Gago talks about how his latest work and exhibition extends his film practice into the realm of experimental video installation.

You Love My Fresh explores Samoan identity, intergenerational cultural transmission and gender in South Auckland.

"The objective is to make visible the manner in which our media consumption contributes to how we formulate our cultural and gender identities and weather these identities are accurately depicted and represented within the medias we consume but more importantly to determine this for ourselves as pacific people framing pacific experiences."

You Love My Fresh is at the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, and is part of the Manukau Festival of Arts 2010.

During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?

Mostly night time.

How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style?

My friend Annie Ng chok in her own unique understanding of aesthetic describes my style as Gangsta… I like that.

What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill?

The creating part is always the fun part.

How does your environment affect your work?

Manukau City frames my artistic practice in that it is rooted within an urban landscape I identify as my home. This allows me to construct works that speak to the lived experiences of my pacific community in New Zealand and the Pacific.

Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details?

It’s all about big picture thinking.

What's your number one business tip for surviving (and thriving) in the creative industries?

Never live in fear of hard work!

Which of your projects to date has given you the most satisfaction?

YOU LOVE MY FRESH has created a trajectory that has allowed me to imagine a creative career / practice that is both sustainable and fulfilling

Who or what has inspired you recently?

My family and Pacific people remain my greatest source of inspiration.

Tell us a little bit about your background

I am Samoan born, raised in Manukau City. I studied as a performing arts student at Unitec New Zealand, doing a bachelors degree in performing arts with a major in writing and directing for screen. I come from a large family of diverse cultural backgrounds from around the pacific. 

Tell us a bit about You Love My Fresh?

The work is presented as a three screen projection and is constructed in three parts. The first titled YOU LOVE MY FRESH, an animated composite of black and white still photography and bold yellow text. The second part or middle is title reverse resistance and is made up of documentary footage of a Samoan youth group engaged in the tradition of making a Samoan umu (ground oven). The final part is a filmed performance of a Samoan Taualuga to an original arrangement of the New Zealand national anthem and is titled “Where is Your Gratitude?”

It’s your first ‘solo exhibition’ - how did it come to be?

I was approached by friend and pacific curator Ema Tavola who was presented with an opportunity to curate an exhibition in the project space at Te Tuhi. The Solo exhibition emerged from my desire to realize my film practice within a visual art context, specifically as a video instillation. As a Samoan interested in creating work that represents a unique pacific and duel kiwi experience, Te Tuhi’s physical relationship to Manukau City (home to the densest pacific population in the country) and physical relationship to central Auckland makes it the ideal art institution to host YOU LOVE MY FRESH as it engages with the audience the work is intended for.

What does the work explore?

My work is concerned with examining and making visible specific methods of identity construction within visual mediums. This is articulated through a film based practice that is self reflexive and self referencing. I am interested in creating work that allows me to make apparent to the viewer the vocabulary of visual story telling used to frame pacific experiences as well as the lived cultural & social conditions that contribute to our own ideological construction process, identifying our methods of understanding and our ability to make meaning from pictures and moving images.

Contemporary visual narrative devices such as TV and cinema are primarily concerned with perpetuating a hegemonic world view where by those with power dictate and validated the experiences and realities of those without.

In enabling viewers with the tools to consume my work as a piece of westernized narrative cinema I am able to inject my own value systems and perspectives by taking ownership and control of the process within the frame work of a sustained collaborative film practice.

The objective is to make visible the manner in which our media consumption contributes to how we formulate our cultural and gender identities and weather these identities are accurately depicted and represented within the medias we consume but more importantly to determine this for ourselves as pacific people framing pacific experiences.

In what way is it an ‘experimental video installation’?

Presenting the work as a 3 screen projection is intended to create a cinematic scope. But also, I wanted to reject western narrative conventions and look at creating meaning using methods that lean toward more conceptual and experimental outcomes.

Who curated the exhibition at Te Tuhi – who else did you work with?

The exhibition is curated by Ema Tavola. YOU LOVE MY FRESH is a collaborative video project produced and directed by myself, with contributions and support from Julie Mccormick (performer), Domminic Fryer (director of photography), Quincy Filiga (choreography and music composition), Romeo Aiga (Singer), Mt Roskil Samoan Youth Group, Otahu College, Otara Music and Arts Centre (OMAC) and Fresh Gallery Otara. “Reverse Resistance” Instrumental by King Kapisi appears courtesy of Mushroom Recordings.

What are some of your future plans/projects?

I’d like to create more works that explore pacific masculinity. JERRY THE F’AFAFINE is a project currently under construction for 2011.

If you could go back and choose a completely different career path to the one you've chosen, what would it be?

I’d like to be an erotic dancer at mermaids.

What place is always with you, wherever you go?

Samoa runs through my veins, I need only breathe and be alive to carry that experience with me.

What's the best way to listen to music, and why?

Music should be listened to with the volume up laud enough to make you move your body.

You are given a piece of string, a stick and some fabric. What do you make?

I have no idea.

What's the best stress relief advice you've ever been given?

Relax your sax, have a beer.

What's great about today?

Today brings signs that summer is coming, it’s in the air.

What’s your big idea for 2011?
 
It’s totally within your ability to repeat 2010 during 2011. Don’t do it. Bring yourself a new day.