My interests in printmaking led me to discover the concept of marking. Through working with tools to make marks, I began to think about objects and materials that are used for every day purposes, and I began designing and creating my own tools to produce my own marks.
The way I perform is very emotional and spiritual. I focus on the space and my movements as if I’m in a special place or in the green farmland back in the little island of Tonga, working on the plantation or moving cows to a different spot full of fresh grass. I’m using a machete to cut my way through the thick grass and branches clearing what’s ahead and moving freely into the space full of fresh grass. I think of my space and what’s around me before I actually start performing. Relating to my everyday life and performing in a way that would send messages out to viewers who have gone through similar life experiences.
I am very involved with the cultural side of performance…using materials and objects from the past I try to show laborious and intensive ways of working on the canvas (Tapa) and black ink to mark my traces. My artwork can be used in multimedia, I can use sound to record the process, marks to portray the traces of performing, performance to show the movements and the body as an instrument.
Performance makes the mark. The performer makes the sound. Sound makes the marks. Marks make the sound. Here I’m the creator and the controller but also like the chain that links many cultures. I’m the tufunga person, the builder, and the worker. I am also the composer, the conductor, and the director. I am what binds everything together. That’s why I chose performance. You can have the work and the sound but with the performer, it has something more to it. I’m the tufunga.
Kalisolaite Uhila
