About

Malo e lelei!
'Uike Katoanga’i ‘O e Lea Faka-Tonga / Tongan Language week is coming up on the 5th of September until the 9th of September!

We are running two free public programme learning spaces and art workshops that are facilitated by Tongan artists Benjamin Work and IVI projects.

September 6th
10am and 11am
Te Oro Music and Arts Centre

Email us at teoro@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz for more info!
Malo ‘Aupito!

photo credit to Sam Harnet

ivi

IVI is focused on the design and delivery of collaborative projects. These projects draw on the process, function, pedagogy and aesthetic principles of collective arts practices intrinsic to the Pacific. The projects explore, with partners and participants, how such practices can integrate scientific and faith based systems of knowledge that build capabilities for service to families and communities.

Benjamin Work

Benjamin Work is an artist, Tāmaki Makaurau-born and raised, with Tongan and Scottish heritage. Work’s evolution exemplifies the new trajectories of artists reared on American sub/pop culture, while also explicitly exploring the complexities of both cultural institutions and the Moana Oceania diaspora. Drawing on his Tongan heritage, Work has pushed his art in new directions over the last decade. Inspired by his research throughout museums across the globe; that house Tongan iconography, found on cultural treasures such as ‘akau tau (war clubs), his refined, graphic paintings have sought to find new spaces and ways for audiences to engage with Tonga’s visual culture, both inside institutions and on the streets.