Leba Toki, Bale Jione & Robin White
Robin White | New Zealand b.1946 | Leba Toki | Fiji b.1951 | Bale Jione | Fiji b.1952 | Teitei vou (A new garden) 2009 | Natural dyes on barkcloth, woven pandanus, commercial wool, woven barkcloth, sari fabric mats / 9 components: taunamu 390 x 240cm; butubutu 150 x 240cm; ibe vakabati 180 x 240cm; 2 sulu 79 x 242cm (each); 2 oro 30 x 240cm (each); 2 woven mats 67 x 46cm (each). | Installed size variable | Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
Leba Toki
b.1951 Moce, Fiji
Lives and works in Lautoka, Fiji
Bale Jione
b.1952 Moce, Fiji
Lives and works in Suva, Fiji
Robin White
b.1946 Te Puke, New Zealand
Lives and works in Masterton, New Zealand
Robin White is a significant New Zealand artist who has developed a comprehensive practice since the 1970s. White’s recent collaborative work with Leba Toki and Bale Jione is inspired by her experience of living for many years in Kiribati, in the central Pacific. Both Toki and Jione are from Moce in the Lau group of islands of Fiji, which is renowned for its masi (barkcloth) work. Barkcloth is a material created throughout the Pacific, incorporating unique cultural aspects of each region. The patterning of masi lends itself to the introduction of images and symbols that represent the diversity of contemporary Fijian society, including a strong history of migrant experience. Toki and her family live near the largest sugar mill in Fiji, and this sweet commodity is the starting point for their collaborative work. Responding to interracial Fijian weddings, White, Toki and Jione have created a series of new barkcloths for APT6. These works reference the artists’ Baha’i faith, the history of indentured Indian labour in Fiji, the sugar industry itself and the tensions and opportunities that arise from the diversity that constitutes contemporary Fiji today.
Robin White: Exhibitions (solo): Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2005; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2003. Exhibitions (group): ‘Painters as Printmakers’, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2007; ‘Winged Wonders’, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005; ‘Islands in the Sun’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 2001.
