Filipe Tohi
Aotea (The White Cloud), 2016
Aluminium
7000 x 1400 x 950mm
Filipe Tohi was born in Ngele'ia, Nuku'alofa, Tonga, and immigrated to New Zealand in 1978. Tohi is a tufuga lalava, an expert in the Tongan art of binding with Coconut sennit.
Tohi's sculpture titled Aotea (The White Cloud) takes on the high priests of international geometric abstraction, such as Francois Morellet and Sol Le Witt. Tohi exhibited with these two canons of twentieth century art in a three person exhibition in Lyon, France in the early 2000's.
Tohi became good friends with Morellet, exchanging artworks and shared a natural affinity for the mathematical sublime and minimalist art.
The mathematical sublime is a feeling of the sublime which we experience when we encounter something overwhelming in size. An aesthetic estimation of size, says Immanuel Kant, is something that occurs "in mere intuition (measured by eye)".
Similarly to Morellet, Tohi adopted a pictorial language of simple geometric forms; lines, squares and triangles assembled into three-dimensional compositions. Tohi also shares a particular affinity to the American 'light and space' artists Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella and John McLaughlin.
Aotea invites the viewer into the artists own deep perception, which provokes introspection and therefore a greater understanding of one's relationship to nature.
In Filipe Tohi's art practise he has created a technique called 'Haupuha'. Haupuha is the transferring of traditional Haukafa patterns to create a form that explores volume with illusion and lines. These forms represent female and male binding patterns which are used within a pattern called Fakalava. This translates into cross combination. So there is either a female, Fakalava Fefine or a male, Fakalava Tangata.
The three dimensional sculptural interpretation of this is called 'Haukamea'. This is another instance where Tohi wants to encourage interaction with patterns and this should be viewed from a variety of locations so as to see all possible angles.
Tohi is featured is a featured artist in the 'Tangata O Le Moana', Pacific Peoples in New Zealand exhibition at the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington. In 2023 he became a New Zealand Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate as recognition for his contribution to sculpture.
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Artist Bio
Filipe Tohi was born in Ngele‘ia, Nuku‘alofa, Tonga, and immigrated to New Zealand in 1978. His contemporary paintings and sculptures are imbued with his Pacific island heritage. Filipe is a master craftsman of the traditional art of lalava (the Tongan art of binding with coconut sennit) while his sculptures
reflect a pan-Polynesian aesthetic that he sees as a means of fostering understanding between cultures.
Tohi’s work speaks not only of his homeland of Tonga, but the experiences of migrating and living in New Zealand. He works with a wide variety of media from wood, stone, and wool to industrial materials such as steel and perspex. Filipe uses natural media to represent the past and steel as a contemporary
component. As he has stated:
"For me, stainless steel represents the shiny new structures in the modern world. Wood is based more in tradition - in natural things from our environment."
Filipe has worked at an international level since carving his first commission for the New Zealand Embassy in Saudi Arabia in 1987. Two years later, he held his first solo exhibition at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Filipe instructed many students during his years at Rangimarie
Arts and Crafts Centre and was a founding member of the Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Society in New Plymouth. He has been a full time artist since
1990 and has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world including the United Kingdom, Lithuania, France, Germany, the U.S.A, and Japan. Filipe has had major public sculptures in New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Japan, and China.
In 2023 he became a New Zealand Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate. This is a prestigious award recognising his contribution to sculpture.
