Manuha’apai Vaeatangitau (Manu Vaea)

Ko wai koe?
Malo ‘e tau lava, my name is Manuha’apai Vaeatangitau but usually I go by Manu Vaea. I come from Tonga. My family comes from the villages of Lapaha and ‘Utulau on Tongatapu.

What are your pronouns?
My pronouns are she/her.

Where are you living/working right now?
I’m living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau, but I did a little stint in Pōneke for 6 months and I kinda miss it.

What do you do and why do you do it?
I’m a multidisciplinary artist. I do it because it’s really the only thing I can do it. It’s hard to imagine doing anything else, not that I can. I’m super unpopular in the job market right now. Outside of that, I do it for the joy of it. It makes me feel good and I think that I’m speaking to things that other people see value in.

What are you working on at the moment?
A lot of stuff at the moment. I guess the most pressing thing is a theatre show I’ll be at the helm off. It’s still early days but it’s something I’m really excited for. Granted, I am a flaky artist so it might be years before it hits the stage.

What do you love about art?
I love art for the same reason everyone else does. It’s liberating and exciting. You become privy to new perspectives, new ways of seeing and being. It can be confronting or not at all. It’s so flexible.

What are you reading/listening to/watching at the moment?
I’ve gone back and watched some Greta Gerwig films - Francis Ha, Ladybird, Little Women. I really loved them and for a long time wished to be a manic white girl going about her days with all the whimsy and rage in the world. I’ve been listening to an old Filipino song by Cinderella named Bato Sa Buhangin, it reminds of an aunt I grew up who lives in London now. She would make the best Biko, Puto, and Buko Pandan. Hmm, what else. I’ve gotten into watching Dimension20’s Dungeons and Drag Queens, lol.

Who is your art crush?
My art crush at the moment is everyone at Wheke Fortress. They really hold it down and I imagine in another timeline where our tastes were more aligned with one another sexually we’d have a Sense8 style orgy.

If you had one wish for the art world what would it be?
I don’t really wish for the art world. Maybe, I’d wish for Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale to shove all the nasty parts of it into a car, douse it in gasoline and throw a lit cigarette on it. There are beautiful people with beautiful āhua in the art world though and I wish them safety and success.