Onespace warmly invites you to the opening of Lanu Lanu: The Colour of Language, an exhibition by Samuel Tupou across the Main and Lounge galleries.
In this latest body of work, Tupou extends upon his ongoing exploration of Tongan heritage, language, and migration through the lens of colourful abstraction. Engaging colour as a universal mode of communication, Tupou reinterprets the structural motifs of tapa cloth, tattoo, and Lapita pottery into compositions that balance intuition and precise formal structure. These vivid geometries chart a space between cultural memory and modernist inquiry, revealing abstraction as both a site of displacement and reconnection.
Essay writer David Broker reflects, “Lanu Lanu: The Colour of Language is the result of the twists and turns that artists who have multicultural influences might experience over a lifetime.” The hanging fringes, inspired by brightly coloured threads of Tongan fala mats, act as points of cultural convergence — where natural fibre meets synthetic material, and tradition meets adaptation. Transforming inherited forms into a contemporary visual language, Tupou’s work speaks to resilience, hybridity, and the evolving nature of Pacific identity.
Opening Event: Saturday 8 November, 5 – 7pm
Artist Talk: 4 – 5pm
Artwork:
Samuel Tupou, Horizon Dreams, 2025, acrylic on plywood and polypropylene rope, 64 x 64cm.
Photo: Michael Marzik. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.
