What to Expect

This workshop is an exciting opportunity for young people to work with BIFB 2023 Core Program exhibiting artist and educator Telly Tuita.

BIFB has worked with Tuita to develop the Tongpop Fiasco Interactive Studio, which delves into the vibrant hues of his ancestral home in Tonga. In this hand-on workshop, participants will work together to stage portraits of each other using the props provided. Each participant will take a photograph of themselves home.

Materials provided.

This workshop has a capacity of 10 students.

What to bring

• A snack and water bottle
• Warm clothes

About Your Teacher

Wellington-based artist and educator Telly Tuita was born in Tonga in 1980 and immigrated to Sydney at age nine. Living in Australia for most of his life, Tuita’s disconnect from his Tongan heritage has long informed his practice.  Exploring his cultural identity and complex relationship with his ancestral home has led him to form a distinct visual language, Tongpop. Tongpop is Tuita’s self-described hybrid aesthetic, born from the artist’s love of bright bold hues, alongside traditional Tongan ngatu patterns and religious iconography. Tuita navigates ideas of home and belonging, borrowing familiar motifs, materials and methods of production, challenging idealised notions of the Pacific Islands. Tuita completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at Western Sydney University (1999-2003) before undertaking a Bachelor of Art Education at the University of New South Wales (2004). In 2011, Tuita completed a Master’s in Special Education through the University of Sydney.