Hastings Art Gallery column: The story behind the soil inside the gallery

Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, Kelekele Mo’ui (Living Soil), 2024, installation view at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery. Photo / Thomas Teutenberg.

The column is written by Sophie Davis, the director of Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga – Hastings Art Gallery.

Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery hosted a public performance by award-winning artist Kalisolaite ‘Uhila in May this year.

During the performance, titled Kelekele Mo’ui (Living Soil), the seated artist was buried up to his neck in a mound of topsoil.

He remained silently inside the gallery for around five hours as the public came and went, watching or happening upon ‘Uhila with curiosity and sometimes shock, delight, or laughter.

‘Uhila’s performance came from his return to Aotearoa from New York as the recipient of the prestigious Harriet Friedlander residency, awarded to a New Zealand artist by the Arts Foundation every two years.

Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, Kelekele Mo‘ui (Living Soil) 2024, performance at Hastings Art Gallery. Photo / Robert George

Born in Tonga and usually based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, ‘Uhila began his art practice by studying printmaking at AUT. As he improvised with different materials, ‘Uhila describes how, through the physical act of making prints, “I came to think of my body in a new way ... my mind was open to different ways of leaving an imprint with the audience.”

Last Winter, the gallery hosted the artist for a short research trip and invited him to develop new artwork specifically for Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay.

The title of his subsequent performance, drawn from the Tongan phrases kelekele (soil, earth, ground) and mo’ui (life, living), can be interpreted in multiple ways.

The artist was interested in regeneration and community labour centred around the soil, including the presence of agricultural workers from the Pacific in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay, and the way the soil has shaped livelihoods and industry here.

Many of ‘Uhila’s performances incorporate silence and passivity – including the action of sitting still – to interrogate what he describes as maumau-taimi, “wasting time”.

This practice turns attention to and critiques expectations of labour, gender, and value. In Kelekele Mo’ui (Living Soil) this practice is juxtaposed with intense physical labour and endurance, and the aliveness and visceral qualities of the soil, such as smell, touch and humidity.

While developing his work, Uhila spoke with people about the history of the soil in te Matau-a-Māui in pre- and post-colonial times and those who work on the land, including his uncle, Tomasi Tuavao, an RSE coordinator at Mr Apple in Hastings who played a key role in the performance.

He led a group of men from the Tongan community who wheelbarrowed soil into the gallery and tipped out the soil, load by load, around the seated artist.

Once this action was complete, the men maintained the mound of soil by occasionally compacting it heaping it up in areas where it had fallen, disrupted by the artist’s slight movement and breathing.

The performance drew people in throughout the day, and by the end, a small crowd had gathered. They sat quietly together, waiting for what happened next: when the Gallery officially closed for the day, the artist was pulled out by the men who buried him, leaving impressions of his body and an imprint on the audience, who had experienced something entirely out of the ordinary.

The physical remnants of the performance have remained in the gallery since as an exhibition, including a selection of black-and-white photographs by videographer Robert George documenting the performance – on at Hastings Art Gallery until August 18.

Alongside championing local arts, we see support for visiting contemporary artists like ‘Uhila, whose practices can open up new worlds and experiences for audiences, as an important part of our work.

Hear directly from ‘Uhila and videographer Rob George in a public talk at 11am on Saturday, July 13.

Free, no booking required.