Artist Telly Tuita's vibrant installation, Tongpop, takes over the Sydney Festival hub and the historic steamship SS John Oxley. Drawing on his Tongan heritage and experiences growing up in Australia, Tuita's work explores themes of family, cultural identity, and the everyday beauty of creation.
It’s colourful and camp, can be joyfully silly but has layers of meaning and deep cultural references. Welcome to Tongpop , the wild and wonderful creation of multidisciplinary artist Telly Tuita , visual artist-in-residence at this year’s Sydney Festival .
Despite being abandoned by his parents “for complicated reasons” as a young child, he recalls his early years in Tonga with his extended family as idyllic. It was also where he learnt many of the traditional techniques he now employs in his art practice. “I arrived at the airport, met complete strangers and then went to KFC to have a meal from this talking box,” he says. “It was that sort of big punch of life where your whole world shifts and turns overnight.”Speaking only Tongan, Tuita went to Campbellfield Public School, where he recalls being taught English for two years by a “lovely palangi lady”. He completed his HSC and went to art school, then went on to teach art.
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