Silent Screams of Memories

Telly Tuita, The Great Land of Oz (detail), 2023. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photo by Jodie Barker.

Telly Tuita, The Great Land of Oz (detail), 2023. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre. Photo by Jodie Barker.

now on
18 Jul – 29 Aug

Telly Tuita

Silent Screams of Memories is an exhibition by Telly Tuita exploring childhood memories through an adult lens. Tuita, who was born in Tonga, spent the first nine years of his life there before being sent to live in Australia. Decades removed from this period, he is able to respond to horror with humour in Repressed Memories, a newly commissioned series at the heart of this exhibition. A head with soap in its mouth, a hand next to an axe, a head through a wall—these confronting images evoke moments of trauma from his time in Australia, a land often lauded for the opportunity it can offer those who relocate there.

Tuita’s new Screaming Idol series represents the artist’s fourteen years of childhood—nine years in Tonga and five in Australia—before he was kicked out of home and forced into adulthood. Older works, including The Great Land of Oz, have also been recontextualised, becoming a wry commentary on nationhood and belonging. Presented alongside this installation is Boy with Red Apple, a short film by Jamie Berry exploring Tuita’s earlier years in Tonga. 

The darkness underpinning the exhibition has bled outward into Silent Screams of Memories’ visual form. Dominated by black, the exhibition marks a striking aesthetic departure for Tuita, who is known for his use of bright colours.

 

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Mā te whakaaturanga nei a Silent Screams of Memories ka hoki mahara a Telly Tuita ki tētahi wā i tōna tāmarikitanga. Kua whānau mai a Tuita i Tonga, kua tipu ake ia i reira tae noa atu ki tōna huringa iwa tau. Kātahi kua tukuna ia ki Te Whenua Moemoeā e tapaina e tauiwi ko Ahitereiria*. Mai kōnei kua pakeke ia, kua hipa ngā tekau tau, otirā kua māwhe iho te mamae o taua wā; ka huri a Tuita me tāna tiro pukuhohe ki ōna wheako mōkinokino i a e taitamariki ana. I te punipuni hanganga nei a Repressed Memories nā Enjoy i tono, kitea atu ai ngā whakaatanga parangēki, hei tauira, ko tētahi ūpoko e kai hōpi ana, ko tētahi ringa ki te taha o tētahi toki, waihoki ko tētahi māhunga whakaputāina atu mā tētahi pātū, ka rangona te ngākau kōhukihuki i ahu mai i tōna tukunga ki Ahitereiria, ahakoa pāpāohotia rā taua whenua hei wāhi whāinga nui mā ngā manuhiri e tau atu ai. 

E tohu atu ana tōna punipuni hanganga hou a Screaming Idol i ōna tau tekau mā whā tāmanga, arā ōna iwa tau i Tonga me ōna rima tau i Ahitereiria, ki mua mai o tōna panaina atu i te kāinga ki waho e putu ana, me tōna oho pakeke māna ake ia hei tiaki. Kua whai horopaki hou anō ētahi hanganga nōna mai mua. Ko The Great Land of Oz tētahi. I tēnei horopaki ka whakaatu āhua orotaha ngā āria o te ‘nationhood’ me te whakatangatawhenuatanga. Tāpiri mai ai a tō Jamie Berry kiriata poto a Boy with Red Apple e whātorotoro ana i ō Tuita tau reremua i Tonga.

E mōhiotia tō Tuita hanganganga toi i ngā tae muramura, engari papī mai ai te pōkēkē ki ngā āhua a Silent Screams of Memories. Takiuru ana tēnei whakaaturanga i te mangu, i te uriuri. Otirā ka tohu atu tēnei whakaaturanga i tētahi huringa aro mā Tuita.

 

*Kua maua te ingoa a Ahitereiria i tēnei tuhinga e kē ana i te ingoa taketake ake a Te Whenua Moemoeā i runga i te horopaki tāmitanga o taua whenua e tohu atu ana me te hāngai o ngā pāpānga tāmitanga ki tō Tuita horopaki. 

 

Te reo Māori translation by Heidi Brickell.

Curated by Brooke Pou

Telly Tuita is recognised for the way his work brings together Pacific heritage, personal narrative, and bold visual language. Tuita coined the term 'Tongpop' to celebrate the artist's rich relationship with his ancestral home of Tonga, as well as his lived experiences in Australia and Aotearoa. Within his practice of video, photography, painting, sculpture and installation, Tuita navigates ideas of home and belonging, identity, and self-worth. His work encapsulates an experience lived between two realities. 

Tuita has exhibited widely across Australia, New Zealand and internationally. His first major solo show, Tongpop’s Great Expectations, was held at Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW in 2024. He has exhibited at Tautai, the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Tauranga Art Gallery, and the Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki. In 2025 Tuita was selected as Sydney Festival's Visual Artist in Residence, where he transformed the Thirsty Mile precinct with the work Tā and Vā of Tongpop. Tuita has also shown at international events including La biennale d’art contemporain autochtone / The Contemporary Native Art Biennial, the Aotearoa Art Fair, and the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

E mōhiotia whānuitia tō Telly Tuita whakaputanga toi i te tuituitanga o tōna aho Moana-nui-a-Kiwa ki ōna ake pūrākau matawhaiaro, me tōna reo ataata pākaha hoki. Nānā ake te kīanga a ‘Tongpop’ i tuku hei kupu whakatairanga i tōna hononga haumako ki tōna whenua a Tonga, me te kawenga o taua tuākiri ki Aotearoa, ki Ahitereiria hoki. Mā ngā ataata rau e whakamahi ana a Tuita, arā ko te kiriata, te whakaāhua, te peita, te hanganga ahutoru, me te titonga mokowā, ka urungi a Tuita i waenganui i ngā māramatanga o te kāinga me te tūrangawaewae, waihoki i waenganui i te tuākiri me te kiritautanga. 

Kua whakaaturia whānuitia a Tuita i Ahitereiria, i Aotearoa me ētahi whenua tāwāhi anō. I tū tōna whakaaturanga tuatahi, arā ko ‘Tongpop’s Great Expectations’, i Campbelltown Arts Centre, Takiwā Wiradjuri (NSW) i te tau 2024. Kua whakaatu hoki ia i ōna toi i Tautai, i New Zealand Portrait Gallery, i Tauranga Art Gallery, me te Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki hoki. I te tau 2025, kua tīpakona a Tuita hei ringatoi whaimana i te Sydney Festival. I reira pānonitia ai te Thirsty Mile i tāna Tā and Vā of Tongpop. Kua tū hoki ā Tuita toi i La biennale d’art contemporain autochtone / The Contemporary Native Art Biennial, i te Aotearoa Art Fair me te Bellarat Internation Foto Biennale. 

 

Jamie Berry is a multidisciplinary artist of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi, and Ngāti Ruanui descent, originally from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa and based in Pōneke, Aotearoa. Her work explores Aotearoa histories and her relationship to identity and place through moving image, installation, digital media, and sound. She is known for creating immersive environments using light, colour, movement, and audio to express the interconnection of past, present, and future.

Her practice extends into live audio-visual performance, where she composes visual and sonic elements in real time to respond to space and audience. Her work Whakapapa/Algorithms premiered at the Oberhausen Film Festival and was selected for the Beijing International Art Biennale. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including the Malta International Art Biennale, and has developed large-scale public works and Matariki commissions across Pōneke.

Alongside her artistic practice, Berry works as a freelance digital artist, designer, and VJ, recently serving as Lead Designer for the Aotearoa section of WOW 2025. She was selected for the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) 2026–2027. Her work is driven by a commitment to reclaiming narrative, strengthening Indigenous presence within digital and spatial practice, and creating environments where whakapapa, technology, and lived experience intersect.

He ringarehe rawatoi rau nō Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, nō Rongowhakaata, no Ngāti Porou, nō Ngāpuhi, nō Ngāti Ruanui hoki a Jamie Berry. E tūhura ana ōna toi i ngā hītori o Aotearoa i runga i te kaupapa o te tuākiri me te tūrangawaewaetanga. I tipu ake a Jamie i Tūranganiu-a-Kiwa, ā i ēnei rā noho ai ia ki Te Whānganui a Tara. Ko tō Jamie whakapapa te pūtake o āna mahi toi e aronui ana ki te wā ki mua, te wā i nāia nei, me te wā e heke mai nei kōtahi. E ahu anō mai ana ia i ngā pūrākau mā ngā rawatoi maha, pērā ki te tūhanga matihiko, te oro ā-ira, te hopunga ataata me te puningatoi.