LATAI TAUMOEPEAU – THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Latai Taumoepeau, born in 1972 in Sydney, is a contemporary artist of Tongan and Australian heritage. Recognised as a Punake — a Tongan term referring to an artist who composes poetry, songs, and choreography — she builds her practice around faivā, a body-centred performative tradition.

Her work explores critical themes such as race, class, and the female body, and is deeply engaged with the pressing issue of climate change in the Pacific. She sheds light on power dynamics and the threat of dispossession faced by island communities. Using the body as a living archive, she interrogates ancestral memory, belonging, and Oceanic sovereignty.

Deep Communion sung in minor (ArchipelaGO, THIS IS NOT A DRILL)

The work Deep Communion sung in minor (ArchipelaGO, THIS IS NOT A DRILL), an immersive 16 channel sound installation, invites the public to engage in a durational performance – bringing global awareness to the dangers of deep-sea mining in the Pacific.

Through the construction of a platform comprised of sound and standing paddle machines, the artwork references mass congregational worship and layers the geopolitical players amongst cultural complexities surrounding spiritual belief and ritualistic practices through faiva (body-centred) durational performances.

The immersive installation is Taumoepeau’s rendition of an ancient choral ritual, the Me’etu’upaki; (me’e) translates as dance; (tu’u) standing, (paki) with paddles. As the public commits in groups to power the standing paddle machines they amplify Taumoepeau’s people’s ceremonial Me’etu’upaki, their teamwork contributing to the resistance to deep sea mining (DSM). At the heart of this work is an ancient cultural obligation to keep the cosmogony of the artist’s Tongan ancestors alive over vā (space/time) where Kele (sea sediment) and Limu (seaweed) remain unharmed. Taumoepeau asks the question, who is willing to do the labour in this exercise of ecological responsibility?

The installation can be activated by visitors on Fondation Opale’s opening days.

This work was commissioned by TBA21-Academy and Artspace, Sydney and first presented at TBA21-Academy’s Ocean Space, Venice.

Its presentation in Lens is part of the Biennale Son 2025.