Staying power brings together a group of significant works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection by Angela Tiatia (Sāmoa, Aotearoa, Australia), John Vea (Tonga, Aotearoa) and Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (Tonga, Aotearoa). Each artist employs performance as a central element of their practice, using the body and the physicality of movement to create works that, in different ways, explore ideas of endurance, and systems of labour, value, exchange and impact.

Tiatia, ‘Uhila and Vea are Moana Pacific artists who studied art in Aotearoa New Zealand, all attending Auckland University of Technology. Their works offer different ways to think about and grow understandings of Pacific lives in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. In parallel to this, all three artists are working in an international context, and their works create ways to consider global systems and impacts that are connecting and reshaping our lives – from climate change to migrant labour conditions.

Staying power also includes a community project developed in collaboration with the Ōtepoti Pasifika Arts Collective (ŌPAC). This sets out to create a comfortable space for conversation and exchange that builds on community relationships that have been developing across time.