Angela Tiatia

I am Angela Tiatia. I am a visual artist based in Sydney. My mother is from Samoa and she's part of the great Pacific migration wave of the 1960s from the Pacific Islands to Auckland. And a lot of her and her generation, they work the factories and worked multiple jobs, long hours. My mother's wish for me was for me to not work in a factory. And so I did that. I went and studied a Bachelor of Commerce and I just felt this huge sadness within me. Like I wasn't becoming the person that I wanted to be. And so I went to art school. She'll come to the exhibitions and she'll stand there and then at the end she'll come and in my ear, she'd go, "so when you're going to become a lawyer?" And then I'm like, "um, I'm an artist".

A lot of my work is channeling that feminine energy, that strength within femininity is the quality that I'm really trying to draw out because that is the essence of what I grew up with. what I grew up with, with this really strong, powerful woman. I see a lot of her in my works. It's the essence of her.

Hibiscus rosa sinensis is the very first work that I had filmed as a professional artist. So my portrait that's on display at the moment is my very first moving image work that I made, once I had decided I'm an artist. That's it. I'm going to be a professional artist. This is my profession. This is my career. And it just is a very layered work. It says a lot. It says a lot from where I come from personally, my own journey, from being in front of the camera, to being behind the camera, to then being in front of the camera, and what that enormous journey has done to my own gaze, what I'm giving to the camera. It was so transformational. It had gone from demure and placating, whatever you want me to do, I'm going to do it, to no more. This is me, and I'm doing what I want to do. That's why the work is one minute long, because it's so simple, but the gesture is so powerful.

It means a lot if you understand the context of everything in terms of the way Pasifika females have been represented, historically. By the time that camera was on my face in that moment, I was just fed up. I was done! And I was like, boom, this is my power and my strength from now on. This is me, but you're getting it. Yeah. And so in that moment of time was pure, feminine, rage, anger, power, determination, resilience and strength. I was giving it all down the barrel of the camera.