John Pule

John Pule studied at Mount Albert Grammar School. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with University of Hawaiʻi System. Work by John Pule is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and National Gallery of Australia. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

• Name — John Pule • Honorific Suffix — ONZM • Birth Name — John Puhiatau Pule • Born — 18 April 1962 • Birthplace — Liku, Niue • Citizenship — Niue, New Zealand • Occupation — Artist, novelist and poet • Awards — * Art residency at Roemerapotheke, Basel, Switzerland (2004) • Prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand[8] (2004) • Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury (2013)

Pule was born on 13 April 1962 in Liku, Niue, and arrived in New Zealand in 1964. He was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland.[2][3] After leaving school he spent time working on a dairy farm and in factories and doing labouring jobs.[4]

Pule's artwork includes painting, drawing, printmaking, film-making and performance. The topics of his work include Niuean cosmology and Christianity, as well as perspectives on migration and colonialism. His work comprises both painting on canvas and bark cloth painting, a traditional Polynesian artform. Pule was a guest professor of creative writing at the University of Hawaiʻi in the spring of 2002. In 2005, he co-wrote Hiapo: Past and present in Niuean barkcloth, a study of a traditional Niuean artform, with Australian writer and anthropologist Nicholas Thomas.[12] Since 1991 Pule has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the USA, the Pacific and Asia. From 1996 to present he has held solo exhibitions in New Zealand, and in Melbourne Australia at the Karen Woodbury Gallery.[13] In 2005 he exhibited at the Galerie Romerapotheke in Zurich. Pule's work has been represented in three Asia-Pacific Triennials at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2006, 2002, 1996), and his painting Tukulagi tukumuitea (Forever and ever) (2005) was illustrated on the front cover of the 2006 exhibition catalogue. Other selected group exhibitions include Amanakiaga, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne (2007); Turbulence, the 3rd Auckland Triennial, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki (2007); Paradise Now!, Asia Society Museum, New York (2004); South Pacific Arts Festival, Belau (2004), New Caledonia (2000), and Samoa (1996); Iki and thanks for all the Ika, Contemporary Arts Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania (2003); People Get Ready, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, (2000); Wake Naima, Creating Together, Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Nouméa (1998); Kwangju Biennale, Korea (1995); Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa (1995); Bottled Ocean, New Zealand touring exhibition (1994); Te Moemoea no Iotefa, curated by Rangihiroa Panaho for the Sarjeant Art Gallery in 1990. Hauaga (Arrivals) was a show of Pule's art organised by City Gallery Wellington in 2010, which toured other galleries around New Zealand, including Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland.[14][15] Burn My Head in Heaven is a set of ten drawings combining poetry from his novel of the same name and imagery to tell various stories about living as both a Niuean and New Zealander.[16] The Pulenoa Triptych highlights themes of colonisation and cultural identity. When asked about the painting Pule noted "I wanted to express concerns at the way countries like America and France test their nuclear powers and Star Wars programme using the ocean in our backyard as the site".[17] Pule's work is held in numerous public and private collections including the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland; Wellington High Court, Wellington; and the National Museum of Scotland, Scotland.[18][19]