Tribute: Luggage Tags Triptych created by artist Faleata Ualesi will be on display in Little High Street during Artweek in the City Centre this October.
The shape of each ‘Tribute’ of the triptych symbolises travel tags placed on the Ualesi's parents’ luggage when they made their separate, arduous journeys from the sun kissed islands of Samoa to the bitterly cold land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa, New Zealand. These tags are a “Tribute” to the migration stories of his parents who sacrificed everything to come to New Zealand for better life opportunities for their children and their children’s children and all the generations to come. Hence the title of the piece: Tribute: Luggage Tags Triptych.
The laser cut Pasifika motifs are flower-like in form but when looking up at them on the Hanging Pole Fixtures on Little High Street they transform into stars. The use of PSP acrylic as the medium is to allow the sunlight to playfully diffuse through the material, creating a dynamism and an exuberance with the day’s changing light and falling shadows. We can gaze up at them today, emulating our forefathers of the past, who as voyagers and wayfarers used the stars to navigate and explore the Pacific. In the same way, when people walking by stop and gaze up at the “Tribute” stars they too can contemplate their own journeys and their own destinations.
In the same way that the “luggage tags” were emblematic of a hope for a better future to his parents, the “Tribute” stars represent omens of hope for a better future for all of us, for our city and for our nation.
Part of ArtWeek in the City Centre 2023.
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