Tala o le tau brings together new and significant bodies of work by Angela Tiatia, Yuki Kihara and women from the Moata’a Aualuma Community that collectively explore themes of climate crisis, matrilineal histories and indigenous knowledge systems.

The exhibition’s title Tala o le tau, meaning ‘stories from the weather’ in Sāmoan, is borrowed from the poetic translation of ‘weather forecast’ commonly used by Sāmoan weather services.

Angela Tiatia’s moving image work The Dark Current (2023) explores the intersection of colonialism, femininity and our relationship with the virtual and physical realm. The three-part video acknowledges the past, present and future through a Sāmoan lens and features water as a central tenet to address matrilineal ancestors and their experiences of migration. Foregrounding a network of Oceanic kinships, Tiatia figures Pacific femininity as one of sea-like simultaneity: strength, sensuality, glamour, and creative power. The film captures the dark and chaotic feeling of the current moment whilst proposing a tomorrow where Pacific peoples have total authority over their histories, present and future.

Faced with the reality of increasingly frequent and devastating weather events that threaten life and livelihoods in the Pacific, these artists explore the relationship between gender, creative practice and indigenous knowledge systems as a tool to navigate into an uncertain future.

Text courtesy of Gus Fisher Gallery