Through his Tongan/Polynesian heritage, Samuel Tupou creates patterns derived from and inspired by traditional Pacific Island Tapa cloth design. In his recent artworks he has used colour photographs from family photo albums as a starting point to evoke a strong sense of time and place. These artworks continue Tupou’s fascination with colour and pattern. Colour segments act as oversized pixels that combine to form a recurring pattern and an overall image which is shrouded by pixilation. The photograph’s original details and subtleties are removed leaving the viewer with a series of colour structures which when pieced together allude to the original image.
Tupou’s works use proximity and distance to alter the viewers perception, up close the works appear to be an abstract assemblage of geometric shapes and colours, whilst at a distance an 8-bit halftone image takes shape. The artworks are inspired by mathematical geometry and 1980’s video game imagery as well as Pacific Island Tapa cloth design and fine mat weaving.
Tupou’s work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns; and Centre of Contemporary Art, Cairns.
