For nearly two decades, Salote Tawale has upended viewers’ and critics’ expectations of who she is and what she is likely to do next. Significantly, she refuses for her art practice to be categorised as a symbol of ‘Pacific-ness’ or her place of birth — Fiji.

This process began at art school in Melbourne in the early 2000s, when Tawale explored various modes of self-performance, including the use of animation and green-screen technologies to inhabit different archetypes from popular culture. She decided to concentrate on self-portraiture to bring about awareness and a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of the Pacific diaspora experience. Although Tawale’s work often references mainstream popular culture, her process of image-making humorously exposes archetypes to make room for inclusivity. Tawale’s work therefore recognises and appreciates the myriad ways in which individuals from marginalised groups creatively resist and transcend their circumstances.

Tawale’s recent video works — such as Veibuni and Constantly Changing, both 2018 — often feature family members and are recorded on visits home to Fiji. Character and setting are carefully considered and focus on communicating the contemporary and often do-it-yourself nature of Fijian village architecture. Like in her earlier video works, Tawale views these structures — imaginatively created from a mix of local and imported materials — as types of self-portraits.