Story: Pacific arts in New Zealand

John Pule, '100 love poems' (2nd of 3)

John Pule, '100 love poems'

John Puhiatau Pule, Niuean New Zealand novelist, poet and artist, has often used his poetry within artworks. This lithograph, 'looking at rain too long has given me eternity', is from his series '100 love poems'. While Pule’s art expresses contemporary experience and understanding of history, it is also deeply based in Niuean traditions. In his work, he has translated the layout, forms and colours of hiapo (Niuean tapa), and commented on the history of colonisation and Christianity in the Pacific, and on 20th- and 21st-century experiences of migration. 

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Otago University Press
Reference: Nicholas Thomas, ed., Hauaga: the art of John Pule. Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2010, Plate 50
Lithograph by John Pule

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How to cite this page:

Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, 'Pacific arts in New Zealand - Visual art and literature', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/object/44244/john-pule-100-love-poems (accessed 7 May 2024)

Story by Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, published 22 Oct 2014