John Pule
John Pule is a self-taught writer, artist, and printmaker from Niue, known for his profound contributions to contemporary Pacific art and literature. Born on April 19, 1962, in the village of Liku, he faced significant challenges in his early life, including family struggles and educational difficulties. Nevertheless, Pule's experiences, particularly the stories shared by his aunt about their island heritage, deeply influenced his artistic and literary journey. His works often draw from traditional Niuean hiapo art, incorporating its distinctive grid patterns and cultural symbols, alongside elements of his personal narrative and broader human experiences.
Pule's literary output includes several poetry collections and novels, with "The Shark That Ate the Sun" recognized as a significant work within Pacific literature. After transitioning to visual arts in the late 1980s, he created numerous paintings that resonate with themes of identity, loss, and cultural heritage. His art has been showcased globally, earning him accolades such as the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Art Laureate in 2004 and a New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012. Currently based in Auckland, New Zealand, Pule continues to be a vital voice in expressing the perspectives of the Pacific Islands through his innovative blending of traditional and contemporary forms.
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Subject Terms
John Pule
Artist, author, and poet
- Born: April 19, 1962
- Place of Birth: Liku, Niue
- Significance: With little formal education, John Pule is a self-taught writer, artist, and printmaker whose works reflect his Pacific Island heritage. His work has been exhibited around the world to great acclaim, and he is considered one of the most important artists from the Pacific region.
Background
John Pule was born on April 19, 1962, in the village of Liku on the small Pacific Island of Niue as the youngest of seventeen children. Pule's childhood included a number of challenges. His father was an alcoholic. The family moved from the small island where Pule was born to Auckland, New Zealand, when Pule was two years old. Part of his youth was spent in government housing for immigrants.
Pule attended a school run by American Mormons and was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a young boy. He did not enjoy his schooling and was expelled at the age of fourteen, at which time he went to live with his aunt, Mocca, a sister of his father. Pule's aunt told him stories of the island where he was born and from his family's history, including myths and legends about how the island of Niue was formed and how his ancestors came to be. His aunt's stories helped Pule learn the storyteller's art of taking a well-known tale and making it one's own.
He had no formal education in either writing or art but absorbed much from experiences around him and used it as the formation of his art. In addition to the decades of stories he heard from his aunt, Pule was inspired by hiapo art from his native island. Hiapo is a form of art done in natural pigments on tapa cloth, or barkcloth. The art form was popular in the mid-nineteenth century in Niue. Hiapo often features a grid structure with multiple images filled with a variety of drawings or paintings and words that evoke aspects of the human condition. Pule became fascinated by this style after encountering it in a book and adopted it in many of his art works.
Pule may also have been influenced by rock musician Jimi Hendrix. Pule repeatedly uses titles from songs by the musician in his art works. Although Pule was just a child when Hendrix died, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist was very popular in Pule's native area; Pule's many older siblings likely exposed him to Hendrix's music at a younger age than he might have otherwise heard it.
Life's Work
Pule began his career as a writer when he was about eighteen years old. Inspired by some works by New Zealand and Australian poets, Pule began writing his own poetry. This led to a handful of books of poetry, including Sonnets to Van Gogh in 1983, Flowers after the Sun in 1984, The Bond of Time in 1998, and Tagata Kapakiloi in 2004. He also wrote two novels: The Shark That Ate the Sun in 1992 and Burn My Head in Heaven in 1998. The Shark That Ate the Sun is considered by some to be one of the most significant works of the Pacific communities. His nonfiction works include Hiapo: Past and Present in Niuean Barkcloth, which he cowrote with Australian anthropologist Nicholas Thomas.
In the latter part of the 1980s, Pule began painting in addition to writing. His work varies in format and includes large paintings on canvas and smaller works that illustrate some of his poems. Much of his post-1991 work is inspired by native hiapo art, which he discovered in that year. Pule's version of this traditional native art form uses a grid filled with individual images of people, nature, animals, Pacific Island symbols, and Christian symbols, along with words, dates, and other numbers or letters of significance to tell a story or convey an emotion. For instance, one of his works is entitled Tukulagi haaku (Mine Forever). It includes the date that his young daughter, Zaiya, died after an illness and other images that convey the artist's feelings of sadness and loss.
His work frequently depicts the Ti mata alea, a tree that the Niuean people believe is the source of human life. Like many immigrants, Pule's family brought plants from their homelands with them to their new homes; Pule uses the tree to symbolize his cultural past. Several trips back to his homeland, including one to locate the site of the house where he was born, further influenced Pule's work.
Pule's work has been displayed in many exhibitions, including more than two dozen solo and five dozen group shows in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia. His poetry has been read or performed in six tours and more than two dozen performances throughout the South Pacific. His work is in collections on display in New Zealand, Australia, and Scotland, as well as in his native Niue. Pule has also been a writing fellow or artist in residence in multiple locations and taught as a guest instructor in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Impact
Pule is recognized for the innovative ways he takes traditional Pacific Island art, myths, and legends and forms them into new works. In addition to expressing the unique and somewhat unrepresented perspective of the Pacific Islands, Pule's work is regarded by experts as thought-provoking and challenging in its content and form. In 2004, Pule was named the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Art Laureate. He was awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012.
Personal Life
Pule lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand.
Bibliography
Brunt, Peter. "History and Imagination in the Art of John Pule." Victoria University of Wellington, www.victoria.ac.nz/sacr/publications/History-Imagination-John-Pule-2.pdf. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Daly-Peoples, John, reviewer. "John Pule and Fatu Feu'u." New Zealand Arts Review, 29 May 2024, nzartsreview.org/2024/05/29/new-exhibitions-by-john-pule-and-fatu-feuu/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Durrant, Jacqui. "Odes of a Restless Spirit: John Pule." Art Asia Pacific, Mar./Apr. 2010, artasiapacific.com/Magazine/67/OdesOfARestlessSpiritJohnPule. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
"John Pule." The Arts Foundation of New Zealand, 28 May 2024, www.thearts.co.nz/artists/john-pule. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Waddoups, Ryan. "John Pule Wades into His Windswept Canvases." Surface, 16 Sept. 2024, www.surfacemag.com/articles/john-pule-venus-over-manhattan-artist-statement/#. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.