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. Tawale’s video work — often humourous — is included in the exhibition ‘sis: Pacific Art 1980–2023’ at the Gallery of Modern Art until 25 August 2024. 

In the words of the artist:

I think role-playing and humour function as a tool for my art in the same way it does in my life. It can be used as a coping mechanism. It can break the tension. I’m hoping that when people come and view these works that they do have a chuckle and think about what’s so funny, because within that entangled is the concepts of the work.