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Tuffery’s bold, vibrant figurative paintings, drawings and prints are essentially narrative in style. Tuffery developed his exceptional graphic skills early as a result of his childhood dyslexia - drawing became a means of communicating and storytelling. He continues to paint and tell stories - in First Contact he has created a compelling narrative around the story of explorer James Cook’s epic voyages into the Pacific. All the works in the exhibition fit into this wider narrative: in one section Tuffery focuses on the main characters Cook, Mai and Tupaia; in another sequence he looks at Cook’s introduction of livestock into the Pacific; and finally the projection encapsulates the entire story of first contact between these very different cultures. Fresh Eyes on Pacific History Tuffery brings fresh eyes to Pacific history, questioning the one-sidedness of the European view. Inspired by repeated readings of Anne Salmond’s recent book, The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas and E H McCormick’s Omai: Pacific Envoy, Tuffery re-examines historical events from a 21st century urban Pacific perspective. Fascinated by the accounts of Cook’s Pacific voyages, Tuffery has focused on three strands in them: the stories of Tupaia, the high priest navigator who travelled to New Zealand on Cook’s first voyage and Mai, the first Polynesian to travel to England via Cook’s second Pacific voyage in 1774; and the descriptions of how the first cattle were brought by Cook into the Pacific. Anne Salmond describes in great detail how Cook was personally transformed by his experiences and his intriguing relationships with Pacific Islanders, especially his close associations with a number of high chiefs in Tonga, Tahiti and Hawaii. According to Salmond, ‘He loved them and understood their languages and had the art of captivating them with his engaging manner’.2 Tuffery has created a set of bronze busts of Cook, as well as a series of portraits of Cook in some of the different locations he visited. He has painted Cook with various markers of Pacific identity - a Pacific tattoo, a frangipani, a hibiscus and a dog-skin cloak - to illustrate how his identity was reshaped by his relationships with the Pacific Islanders he encountered. In the painting New Zealand Man in Cook Strait he portrays Cook as a Pacific European. Homage to Mai and Tupaia Tuffery has painted a series of works as a homage to Tupaia and Mai. In England, the impact of Mai’s visit was enormous: he became a catalyst ‘provoking discussion of many issues - moral, philosophical and religious - concerning eighteenth-century society’.3  Tupaia, who acted as Cook’s translator and navigator, was respected by Maori above all other visitors. Tuffery, who identifies strongly with Tupaia, wants to raise awareness of the pivotal role Tupaia played in the history of first contact. Tupaia learned to paint in watercolour, so was one of the first Polynesians to use European art materials. In 2004 Tuffery commented, ‘Omai and Tupaia were here when it was all happening, the first Polynesians witnessing all this business. I am trying to carry on with what Tupaia would have done if he had the materials I have now’.4  More recently he has said, ‘Tupaia came from the same island my family is from. Reading Salmond’s book I became excited about the paint box Tupaia was sharing with Parkinson and I started thinking about the different ways he and Parkinson would understand what they were seeing’.5  In one of Tupaia’s well-known sketches, he painted Banks exchanging bark-cloth for a crayfish: Tuffery transforms the image into a diptych Tupaia’s Chart, Cook and Banks – Tupaia and Parkinson’s Paintbox, celebrating the significance of the relationships between the men. Transformation Tuffery is best known for his series of life-sized bull sculptures constructed from corned beef tins. In these works he transforms flattened recycled tins into monumental sculptures. He continues the theme of transformation in his recent work. He transforms some of the iconic visual material created by the artists on board Cook’s voyages - to rejuvenate it ‘through urban eyes’. The often-idealised images created by Sidney Parkinson, William Hodges and John Webber of the lives, arts and rituals of life in the Pacific had a profound influence on the European imagination. Tuffery believes ‘the images created during those voyages are ingrained in the psyche of Western culture and are key in the historical development of the visual mindset towards the cultures of the Pacific’.6  In paintings such as Night Dance in Christkeke, Tuffery takes John Webber’s iconic etching of a Tongan night dance and transforms it, ‘retranslating’ it from a 21st century perspective, with the subtle inclusion of contemporary elements such as cellphones. Trade and exchange During his voyages, Cook and his crew traded and exchanged a remarkable collection of cultural items through gift-giving and bartering. On his third voyage Cook brought with him bulls, horses and sheep to stock the Pacific, ‘to the great Astonishment of the New Zealanders, who have never seen horses or Horned Cattle before’.7  The animals were brought out at vast trouble and expense but Cook was determined to stock the islands for posterity with useful plants and livestock. The bull has been a recurring motif in Tuffery’s art. Recently he has painted a series of works in which he reflects on the impact of Cook’s introduction of these animals into the Pacific. He says, ‘I’m looking at the significance of these four-legged animals turning up in Polynesia. As soon as they arrived, everything changed’.8 In this exhibition Tuffery repositions his massive bull sculptures, reabsorbing them into the context of his current work. They now serve as a metaphor for Cook’s introduction of livestock into the Pacific, as well as for Tuffery’s concern at the way imported food has undermined customary food in the Pacific. Tuffery looks at the ongoing process of cross-cultural interaction between Pacific Islanders and Europeans and reflects on the consequences, both positive and negative, for the Pacific environment and its people. In the earlier part of his career Tuffery was fired up about colonialism in the Pacific; his recent work considers the clash between past and present as well as Western and Pacific cultures in the South Pacific. First Contact is intended to raise awareness, change perceptions and foster a greater understanding of our shared Pacific history. Helen Kedgley Curator, First Contact 1 Tuffery, M. (1 June 2007). Personal communication 2 Salmond, A. (2004). The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas, Penguin Books, p. xxiv. 3 McCormick, E. H. (1977). Omai: Pacific Envoy, Auckland University Press, p. vii 4 Tuffery, M. in ‘Bulls and cannibals in Tuffery’s art’, Herald on Sunday, 21 Jan 2004 5 Tuffery, M. (2004). Personal communication 6 Tuffery, M. (6 July 2007). Personal communication 7 Samwell in Beaglehole, J.C., Ed (1967). The Journal of Captain Cook, 11: 995 8 Tuffery, M. in ‘Bulls and cannibals in Tuffery’s art’, Herald on Sunday, 21 Jan 2004 Michel Tuffery First Contact By Dr Karen Stevenson, School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury In 1767 Samuel Wallis returned to England after a brief stay in Tahiti. Based on his experiences there, the Admiralty decided to send James Cook to the Society Islands (as Wallis had named them) to track the transit of Venus. Since this time stories of and about the Pacific have engaged the imaginations of many. However, it has been the voice of the West that has recounted the histories of these early encounters. In First Contact Michel Tuffery redresses this anomaly. Inspired by his reading of Anne Salmond's The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas Tuffery reinterprets historical events, offering a Pacific experience and voice. Salmond's work delves into the mindset of Cook and his men and in so doing she provides the opportunity for the Pacific to play a role in these explorers’ tales. The important role that both Tupaia and Mai played on Cook's voyages as well as the psychological impact the Pacific had on Cook is just beginning to be investigated. It is only in the last decade that the identity of the 'artist of the first mourner' has been revealed. Tupaia, a priest and navigator from Tahiti, befriended Cook, and was the first Pacific Island artist to use Western materials. We now assume that it was Tupaia who led Cook to map the Pacific, and it was Cook's relationships with both Tupaia and Mai that enabled him to broker the positive relationships with the Pacific peoples he encountered. In this exhibition we witness Tuffery's interpretations of the interactions between Pacific peoples, of the pacification of Captain Cook, and of the events that make up First Contact. Caroline Vercoe has noted that the Pacific is often “emotionally charged with a complex layering of fantasy and conquest result[ing] in bizarre historical juxtapositions”. She continues to state “This contested paradise has proven to be a rich terrain for Pacific artists” (Vercoe 2004:38-39).  The veracity of this statement is undisputed. This is Michel Tuffery’s playground. In this exhibition of work, Tuffery addresses the interactions between Cook and the Pacific, turning 18th century stereotypes of the South Pacific inside out. Redressing the cliché of an island paradise inhabited by noble savages and beautiful maidens, Tuffery offers up a series of work giving the Pacific ‘ownership’ of its most famous icon – Captain Cook. Cookies Crown (2005) was one of his first works to depict Cook with a moko, clearly stamping the Pacific onto both Cook and the West. In the past three years Tuffery has created many images that reflect on this period of exploration asserting a Pacific agency in these interaction and experiences of First Contact. Tuffery brings to these ideas a number of constructions and devices that tell stories that have been left untold. What kinds of relationships were enacted on these voyages? What roles did the artists and the officers play as the British became taio (friends/exchange partners) with the Pacific's rulers, priests, and rogues? Utilising well-known images from the voyages, Tuffery recreates these interactions. In Cookie in Aotearoa (2006), the image of a Maori chief drawn by Parkinson on Cook's first voyage is positioned as a memoire of interaction. This work gives us a sense of what Cook was seeing and feeling – not reciprocal interactions, but experiences not forgotten. The use of a diptych, to position these characters, side by side, as equals, is seen in a number of works from this period. However, in images such as Tupaia's Chart, Cook and Banks - Tupaia and Parkinson's Paintbox (2004), Tuffery asserts a Pacific prominence, foregrounding Tupaia's navigational knowledge and artistic abilities. History is also conflated in such works as Conversations Mai and Cookie (2007), and Night Dance in Christkeke (2007). Here, Tuffery uses Cook (or is it Mai) as the meeting point between himself, Tahitians, Maori and Tongans. These images, of a pacified Cook in conversation with the Pacific, repositions these interactions as central to Cook's psyche, prophesising the Pacific's hold on the Western imagination. Updating these interactions, Tuffery provides his Tahitian protagonists with cellphones – valued articles of exchange between the Pacific and the West. Redressing history, Tuffery has also created works recognising Pacific individuals; he offers recognition to Tupaia, Mai, Kakura as well as others who interacted with the West. In Tupaia and Banks (2005), Tuffery utilises a well-known image, drawn by Tupaia, to suggest the importance of a particular event – an exchange of cloth for a crayfish. Was it Tupaia who coached Banks in the Polynesian protocol of exchange? The circumstances behind this image become a catalyst for Tuffery's imagination spurring him to both reflect upon and acknowledge not only the exchange of physical objects, but the experiences and interactions that were of overwhelming significance to all involved. Clearly these interactions were not one-sided; clearly they were not dominated by the West. Tuffery's imagery focuses on both the psychological and material exchanges witnessed and experienced at First Contact. In another set of works Tuffery moves beyond the historical. Addressing the alien nature of these historical events he gives them a 21st century context. Cartoon characters, spaceships, and alien hybrid beasts interact with the gods and/or Pacific peoples. A pan-Polynesian ideal as seen in Va’a to Rarotonga (2005), and Camouflage Va’a to the Pacific (2005) combines images of armed men who appear to have landed from spacecraft and approached a ‘god’ holding both a bull and a va'a with a manaia-style prow. Perhaps a trade will take place, perhaps the va'a will carry these bulls to a new, untainted, home. To reinforce the character of these interactions, Tuffery uses corned beef tins as a surface for his painting. Well-known for his povi, a comment on "an introduced species, which dominates and destroys the fragile island eco-system, simply, an obvious metaphor for missionisation, colonisation, and the continued exploitation of Pacific resources" (Stevenson 2000), these works continue Tuffery's interest in these issues. This exhibition also brings together four povi that he has created in the past decade. In the past Tuffery has asserted an environmental stance vis-à-vis these enormous bulls; however, as it was Cook who first introduced livestock into the Pacific, these bulls are easily recontextualised to provide a greater depth of knowledge about the interactions of First Contact. Performance and multi-media work continue these explorations as Tuffery combines history with imagery (both real and imagined) and sound (the traditional morphing into the contemporary) to reinforce a Pacific presence and agency. Histories frequently forgotten are reinterpreted to create new possibilities of interaction. As such Tuffery positions himself within the continuum of historical interaction, his oeuvre reflecting the complexity of the past as well as our present. It is Tuffery's interpretations of these events, of history, of the contemporary that combine to create his voice, his story, of First Contact. References Stevenson, Karen. 2000. Another Introduced Species?  Michel Tuffery, an Artist with a Conscience. 2000 Biennial, Contemporary Visual Arts Festival.  Christchurch: Art & Industry. pp.42-43. Vercoe, Caroline. 2004. The Many Faces of Paradise. Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific. New York: Asia Society pp.38-39. Biography MICHEL TUFFERY Born 1966, Wellington, New Zealand. Lives and works in Wellington. An artist of Samoan, Tahitian and Cook Island descent, Tuffery has a Diploma in Fine Arts (Hons), School of Fine Arts, Otago Polytechnic (1989). SELECTED EXHIBITIONS RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2006 Tangaroa Sanctuary, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch 2005 E Taingauru Ma Rima Etu, Beachcomber Gallery, Rarotonga 2005 O le Povi Pusa Ma'ataua, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin 2005 Salamander Gallery, Christchurch  2005 Cookies Portraits, The Artists Room, Dunedin 2004 New Works, Williams Gallery, Petone, Wellington 2004 Riria.Lili.Riri, The Lane Gallery, Auckland RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2007 Tahi, Rua, e Tolu, Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka, New Zealand 2007 Le Folauga, Auckland Museum, Auckland 2006 Pasifika Styles, University of Cambridge, England 2005 Landscapes & Beyond, Amelia Johnson Contemporary Gallery, Hong Kong 2005 New Zealand Contemporary Landscapes, The Arthouse, Singapore PERFORMANCE ARTWORKS  2007 @First Contact, Christchurch Arts Festival, Christchurch, NZ 2007 First Contact, Festival of Colour, Wanaka, Central Otago 2005 Wings of the Manu, Festival of Colour, Wanaka 2004 Moana Malosi, Asia Society, New York 2003 Mata Mata Phusion, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland  2003 Animated Effigy, Mackay Art Gallery, Queensland GRANTS AND AWARDS  2007 Artist in Residence, Campbelltown Art Gallery, Sydney Australia 2006 Artist in Residence, Whitireia Polytechnic, Porirua, NZ 2005 Artist in Residence, Kings College, Auckland, NZ 2003 Artist in Residence, Canberra School of Art, ANU, Canberra, Australia 2002 Artist in Residence, Mackay Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia 2001 Artist in Residence, Canberra School of Art, ANU, Canberra, Australia 2000 Artist in Residence, Sydney College of Arts, Sydney, Australia  1999 Artist in Residence, The Arts Centre, Christchurch, NZ 1998 Artist in Residence, Cairns City Council, Cairns, Queensland, Australia 1997 Artist in Residence, MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies,  University of Canterbury, Christchurch NZ COLLECTIONS Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, NZ Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, Auckland, NZ Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, NZ Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu; United Nations, N.Y, USA Centre Culturel Tjibaou, New Caledonia Museum fur Volkerkunde, Germany Machida Art Museum, Japan Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Pataka Museum, Porirua, NZ