Telly Tuita: Tongpop’s Great Expectations

Image credit: Silversalt Photography

Campbelltown Arts Centre presents'Telly Tuita: Tongpop’s Great Expectations', the first solo exhibition of Wellington-based visual artist Tuita in Australia.  

Telly Tuita’s childhood memories in Tonga are a driving force in his artistic practice, they are at the heart of his powerful performative self-portraits over a 25-year period (1999-2023). Tongpop is a term coined by Tuita to describe his visual language. It celebrates Tuita’s rich relationship with his ancestral home of Tonga and his lived experiences in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand).     

The exhibition, 'Tongpop’s Great Expectations', invites visitors to experience Tuita’s Tongpop multiverse. It is a compelling assembly of early works from Tuita’s time growing up in Minto and working in Campbelltown and from his practice since 2017 when the artist moved to Pōneke Wellington, Aotearoa. Central to the exhibition are two major new commissions. The first a site-specific Tongpop landscape which will feature mixed media painting and installation. The exhibition will also present a new multi-channel video work, the artist’s first time working in animation.     

Telly Tuita encourages visitors to recognise their own life in his story, especially the conflict between great expectations of ourselves and the expectations of our contemporary global and technological reality. The exhibition is accompanied by an intergenerational public program which will focus on how one encounters the different stages of life, in Tuita’s words, “dawn, day and dusk”. 

View Roomsheet(PDF, 3MB)

About the Artist  

Telly Tuita was born in Tonga in 1980. Tuita had a rocky start to life, his mother and father deserted him as a child. Even today, he has not met his mother. Tuita was passed around different villages in Tonga. At the age of nine, he was found by his grandfather who sent him to Minto, New South Wales to live with his father and stepmother. Young Tuita spoke no English and was hit in the face with the modernity of Sydney. At age 14, Tuita was kicked out by his stepmother and had to start again. In 1996, aged 16, Tuita was adopted by his uncle and aunt in Campbelltown. He completed his Higher School Certificate at Campbelltown Performing Arts High School.

Tuita holds a Masters of Special Education, University of Sydney (2011); Bachelor of Art Education, University of New South Wales (2004); and Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), Western Sydney University (2003). Solo exhibitions of  Tuita’s work include 'TongPop Fetish' at Object Space, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and 'TongPop Nostalgia' at Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch Toi Moroki. Tuita has been included in group exhibitions such as Ballarat International Foto Biennale (2023), Ballarat, Australia; 'Whetūrangitia//Made As Stars', The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Aotearoa (2022), 'SpaceYZ', Campbelltown Arts Centre (2021) and 'Saltwater/Interconnectivity' at Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (2020).     

Located on Dharawal land, Campbelltown Arts Centre is proudly owned by the people of Campbelltown. A cultural facility of Campbelltown City Council, assisted by the NSW Government through Create NSW. Campbelltown Arts Centre receives support from the Packer Family Foundation and the Neilson Foundation. This project has been supported by the Hazlett Family and Cameron Brae Group.

 

Tongpop’s Great Expectations (film), 2023 HD video and sound 30:09 minutes Filmmaker: Ludwig El Haddad Courtesy the artist Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre

When

Location

Campbelltown Arts Centre, 1 Art Gallery Road, 2560, View Map