Tui Emma Gillies x Koloa Jewellery

Melino (means peace)

Ever since an Israeli soldier told Palestinian artists in 1980 to stop painting the colours of their flag, even if it was to draw a watermelon, the fruit has become a symbol of resistance.

With respect to the moana themed imagery, Tui says:

I've been working on marine life as part of my MacMillan Brown residency at the University of Canterbury so incorporating these ideas into the collaboration with Koloa seemed natural.

This limited edition collection is part of an ongoing collaboration between Tui Emma Gillies and Koloa Jewellery. This is our latest collection and its focus is to draw attention to the need for peace for all.

Tui Emma Gillies is a Tongan, New Zealand artist who specialises in tapa cloth. She has exhibited and conducted tapa workshops around New Zealand and overseas and her works have been purchased for museums and private collections all over the world. In 2018 she received the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Art Award and also helped revive hiapo growing and the art of bark cloth making alongside her mother in Falevai, Vava'u where it had vanished decades earlier.

In this collaboration, Tui has used umea, a dye made of red clay from Falevai Village in Vava’u Tonga, alongside an array of fun colours to brighten up anyone's day. The feta’aki was grown and beaten by local women in Tongatapu.

Fire has interpreted Tui Emma Gillies' stunning tapa to produce only a limited number of pieces that are mini art art works in themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 products