“Backbone” (2023) by Vasemaca Tavola

One of two large-scale paintings produced for artist Vasemaca (Ema) Tavola’s third solo exhibition, Backbone presented at Vunilagi Vou in April-May 2023.

The work produced for Backbone was informed by what is commonly known as Lapita Pottery, a ceramic tradition that maps human migration and settlement across the Oceania region from as early as 1500 BCE. In this painted study, the central form is a silhouette of an imagined, fully-formed ceramic vessel from the Lapita era rendered in a palette of pink and purple hues. The surrounding linear marks reference the dots and dashes found commonly in the decorative patterning of Lapita era ceramics, and the outlines of spinal vertebra.

Through her visual research in Backbone, Tavola started to see the markings of Lapita era ceramics as the DNA for not only visual culture, motifs and forms still used in contemporary Oceania, but as a new timeline of indigenous knowledge and resilience that re-contextualises the timeframe and cu...