Summary“My fale-ship residency was a powerful, insightful and transformative experience - This residency enabled me to challenge my artistic boundaries, experiment with new mediums and witness yet again, the magic that unfolds in sacred spaces.”
Eliza Vawdrey-Roy is a visual artist of Samoan, English and French descent, who works in painting, drawing, writing, sculpting, film making, activation and performance. Her work often considers Indigenous worldviews and healing through reclamation. She is also inspired by te taiao, fluidity, wahine, Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, our ancestors, atua and aitu, the seen, the unseen and the foreseen.
Creative Process - Part Tasi
Eliza’s two-week Fale-ship journey was a mindfully curated and meditative process, Eliza embraced the form of the Fale-ship to be truly present with her mahi and find inspiration and a refreshed rhythm to carry her through her creative practice.
For the last four years Eliza has lived and worked with a condition that causes her chronic pain and fatigue. In the first week of her residency Eliza had a flare up which left her bed-bound. Though this restriction could have led to frustration and dismay, Eliza chose to surrender to the unfolding guidance of nature, her ancestors and the spirit realm, in order to find inspiration and clarity.
She utilised the currency of her situation to engage in a creative process of self-reflection, presence, rumination, musing and unearthing. By navigating a pathway of acceptance through the obstacles and challenges she encountered on her Fale-ship journey, and indeed in her everyday life and practice, Eliza is able to bring all parts of herself to her creative practice to make new discoveries and reveal new ways of being in herself and her art.
“There were many points throughout this journey where I wondered what I had gotten myself into, but I was reminded of my intentions and the many reasons why I’m doing this. It was important to allow myself space for the processing and validating of all my feelings. I knew I needed to let go, to pray, have faith and surrender to this journey. This remembering is what kept me grounded and in a space of gratitude which encouraged me to keep going.”
- Eliza Vawdrey-Roy
The Final Outcome
Part Lua
Eliza’s final work is a painting filled with rich motifs, the canvas a vessel for a dreamy blue-green seascape that resonates with the familiar humming of the ocean. This visual work, accompanied by a spoken word soundscape, creates a contemplative and sensory experience. Eliza ‘s work is full of rich contradiction – she embraces nuance and complexity, and celebrates difference; while the work is personal - she holds space for the vastness of our stories and shared experiences.
Eliza’s final work pays homage to the Moana, to our islands and to our shared wisdom, it invites us to celebrate the expanse of our own potential, and its place in the world, as we are in our place in the endless yet intimate wonder of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.
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