Hauaga: The Art of John Pule

John Pule is one of the most significant artists living and working in New Zealand today. From the mid-1990s, his powerful, enigmatic, and personal paintings have attracted great interest and his work has come to be widely shown. Famously inspired by hiapo, the innovative barkcloths of 19th-century Niue, John Pule has been fascinated by the Polynesian past and present, even though his work ranges far more widely, responding both to ancestral culture and to the global terror and violence of our time. This is the first book to examine John Pule's art. It ranges over his paintings, drawings, print-makings, and writings (he is the author of two novels and several volumes of poetry). Essays by Gregory O'Brien, Peter Brunt, and Nicholas Thomas provide several routes into Pule's engaging and compelling works, considering his formation as a writer and artist, his meditations on life and loss, and the extraordinary architecture of his visual art. John Pule speaks for himself through an extended interview and in a series of extracts from his poetry and prose. Published to coincide with the first major survey exhibition of Pule's work, curated by the City Gallery Wellington (New Zealand), Hauaga: The Art of John Pule provides an indispensable guide to the work of one of the most powerful and original artists of the new Oceania.