TUI HOBSON
Tui Hobson has worked as a carver for the past 15 years. Her work reflects her Cook Island Maori and European heritage and is inspired by the beauty of the Pacific Islands.
Sit Ups 06 (Oamaru stone)
Tui began as a photography student working with photo assemblage and documenting the street life of her Wellington hometown. While still interested in photography, and after a course in carpentry, it was the more physical and tactile experience of carving which inspired and captured her creative energy, a creativity encouraged from a young age by her artistic parents. It was her father – a carver, art teacher and cabinet-maker who first introduced Tui to woodworking and then to a significant influence, abstract artists and sculptors of the 50s and 60s.
Tui’s carvings range from small intimate pieces to large outdoor sculptures made from recycled native timber, hard woods, hard stone, cast glass and metal. Her forms are responsive to the materials in which she works and inspired by traditional objects infused with a contemporary twist and aesthetic. Tui comments, “timbers such as totara, kauri, rimu and matai excite me for their individuality, each piece having its own unique quality, grain, colour and history. The scars in the wood are elements that add character rather than something to be hidden or removed. ”Tui acknowledges the redemptive and spiritual value of art.
Kava Chair 06 (Macrocarpa)
In 2004 Tui was awarded the Martin Hughes Contemporary Art Award and followed by reconnecting with the Cook Islands, which she found to be “a rewarding experience personally and professionally”. Her work Pacific Memories (2004) was created as a homage to the strong feminine energies of her Rarotongan family, past, present and future. In 2007 she was awarded the Lakehouse Wood Sculpture award.
Vaka 07
Tui's works are held in public and private collections in New Zealand and overseas. Major group exhibitions include Sculpture Onshore Women's Refuge Exhibition (2004 & 2006), Auckland, curated by Helen Shamrock, Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island (2005), AK05 Tautai Trust Symposium and Pole Art of the World (2004), which included sculptors from Papua New Guinea, Canada, USA and New Zealand. In 2007 Tui had a successful solo exhibition at the Remuera Gallery, Auckland and in 2008 a solo exhibition at the McCarthy Gallery in Parnell. As Artist in Residence at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan for 2008, Tui will design a Sculpture for the grounds of the Kaohsiung Museum.
Tui was a Tautai board member from 2004-2007.
Public Commissions include:
Tokoroa Town Centre – Pacific Memories
Kell Park Albany – Kava Chair
North Shore Bus Terminal – Vaka – Open Form
Mangere Bridge School - Fale