& Words

By identifying as a Samoan artist, Fatu Feu’u has helped secure his position as a leading figure in Pacific art. He has acquired chiefly status in his home village, honours and major commissions; yet, the price he has paid is that he is not ranked as highly in the New Zealand art hierarchy as a number of lesser achievers, even though he has lived much of his active career in our country. As he has remarked, in New Zealand there is European art, Maori art and Pacific art, with Pacific art being the smallest in number and least important, as well as poorly represented in major public collections. Samoan art is also linked in some minds to tourist art, decorative and colourful items ornamented with a limited range of motifs such as the ubiquitous frangipani flower. There is also the traditional art form of siapo that has been used extensively to produce modern ornamental works for sale that do not often aspire to the qualities sought in contemporary European art.

While Feu’u himself has always measured his art against