2009.196.001-009 WHITE TOKI JIONE
By Ruth McDougall
‘sis’ April 2024
Teitei vou: A new garden 2009 is one of three large masi (Fijian barkcloth) works that White created with her friend Leba Toki and Toki’s sister-in-law Bale Jione. Together, they explore Bahá’í precepts of collaboration and understanding in the context of Fijian social and political issues. The work comprises two pieces of decorated masi alongside three woven mats, two of which are made from Indian sari cloth. The masi is displayed as it would be at a customary Fijian wedding, but the installation replicates the size of the rooms indentured Indian labourers occupied in Lautoka — Fiji’s sugar capital — when not working; in this way, Teitei vou: A new garden imagines a ‘marriage’ of complex differences across families, villages, ethnic groups, religions, class and race. At the centre of the masi is an image of one of the shrines at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, complete with its terraced gardens on the slopes of Mount Carmel.
Connected objects
Teitei vou (A new garden) 2009
- WHITE, Robin - Artist
- TOKI, Leba - Artist
- JIONE, Bale - Artist