PARADISE*
Tivien Andrews-Homerang, Grace Hasu Dlabik, Sione Monū, Alexander Sarsfield, and Tearia Teaiwa Mortimer, Nicholas Mortimer & Katerina Teaiwa
Curated by Dan Toua
26 July - 4 October 2025
Exhibition Opening: 6pm Friday 25 July 2025
Māori Weaving Workshop with Alexander Sarsfield: 2-4pm, Saturday 4 October
Blue waters, tropical plants, sunshine, smiling faces. Rising sea levels, deforestation, climate crisis, colonisation.
The islands of the Pacific Ocean have long been touted as idyllic paradises, and their people as carefree and welcoming. But in reality Oceanic peoples are battling climate change faster than the rest of the world, facing cultural decay as a legacy of missionisation, searching for belonging in the aftermath of displacement and continually practicing the code-switching that ‘third culture kids’ are experts in. In the midst of all this, community is the common thread that binds Pacific Islanders together - to lean upon, to share stories and pass on knowledge, to examine diaspora and place, and to continue the cultural uplift of the Oceanic Renaissance.
This exhibition investigates the idea of the Pacific region still being thought of as a ‘paradise’, and the complex underbelly that actually exists. Through ceramics, painting, installation and photography, the artists included in this exhibition interrogate identity, queerness, connection, representation, and what it means to be Pasifika in today’s context of globalism, diaspora, migration and diversity.
Ultimately, Paradise* is a vehicle for Pasifika/Australian artists to explore living between two (or three, or multiple) worlds, and is about (re)indiginisation, cultural revival, and strength in community.
*but it’s not all as it seems
Akomanga Raranga | Māori Weaving Workshop with Alexander Sarsfield
Saturday 4 October, 2-4pm
Join Paradise* artist Alexander Sarsfield for a free and engaging Māori weaving workshop. Friendly to all ages and levels of weaving experience, Alex will guide you through Māori cultural protocols and the process of making your own woven putiputi (flower), from start to finish.
The only catch? Alex will be conducting this workshop entirely in te reo Māori!
This workshop is free to attend but places are limited. Any koha (donations) given on the day will be put into Māori community programs.
For full event information, cultural protocols and to register your attendance, please click here.
The workshop will also be photographed. If you do not wish to be photographed, please indicate this when booking.
Akomanga Raranga me Alexander Sarsfield
Hāterei, 4 Oketopa, 2-4 i te ahiahi
Nau mai haere mai ki te tētahi kaupapa raranga pārekareka. He pai tēnei mō ngā pakeke, ngā tāmariki, ngā ihu hūpē, te katoa! Ka ārahitia koutou i te tikanga me te raranga o tētahi taonga e te kairaranga, ko Alexander Sarsfield.
Ko te mea ngahau? Ka kōrerotia te reo Māori noa iho e te kaiako. Kia tau!
Karekau ngā pūtea ki te uru mai, engari homai i tētahi koha hei tautoko te hapori whānui.
Mō ngā mōhiohio ake, ngā tikanga raranga, ā, ki te uru mai, pēhi ki konei. He iti te wāhi. Ka whakaahuatia te akomanga, nō reira mehemea kāore koe e hiahia ana, tohu mai rā!
Image: Alexander Sarsfield, Standing on the paepae (series of 25), 2025, coir mates and acrylic-based paint, 40 x 60 x 2.5cm each. Courtesy of the artist