Visual Artists of Samoa Association held an exhibition last week which attracted 13 artists who displayed their work of art and used the opportunity to strengthen their membership.

With the theme "Waste time: Maimau le taimi", the exhibition’s convenors attempted to address what they see as the non-acceptance of visual art nor its acknowledgement as a necessity in mainstream Samoa.

Lalovai Peseta, an award winning visual artist, spoke of the need to recognise visual artists as a category of the art world. 

"We are not as recognised as the musicians in Samoa but we exist as a group of under-developed artists," Mr. Peseta said.

"So this occasion is to earmark an attempt at organising a group of us, visual artists, because we are told that there's no recognition if we stand alone and separated.”

Mr. Peseta then paid tribute to his mother, who was sitting in the audience during his speech at the exhibition, for her support of his art in the face of discouragement him and his peers face in the country. 

"When I was younger and still now when an artist is involved in painting or just working on art people used to ask, is it edible? 

“That means that they do not value the art as necessary but this art is relevant because without it, people can't recognise themselves and how they feel about situations. 

“Art covers the universe and helps us understand who we are.”

A number of visual artists who attended the exhibition last week spoke of their art pieces, such as 24-year-old Vaiavii Tofilau of Vaitele Utah.

He drew a picture that depicted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing conflict and called his artistic piece "darkness day”.

"I call this painting ‘darkness day’ because to me when we grow older, we will look back and tell our children and their children that this was our time's darkest days," he said. 

For Tito Pritchard of Vaigaga, a 20-year-old who was a recent graduate of the EFKS fine arts program, he sculpted a water eel from wood that he said depicted Mataolealelo river named from the legend of Sina and the eel. 

"The name mata o le alelo has a negative annotation of the story but when we look closer we realise that Sina was talking to the eel, not to the humans. 

“And her words were of anger at the eel who was in love with her. The use of words is what I am trying to lean into, how we use words determines life.”

Mr. Pritchard's mother and his siblings went to the exhibition with his mother indicating that they enrolled him in the church-run fine arts program because he didn’t want to do anything else.

"I am very proud of his commitment, he is reliable at home and we depend on him a lot. I think his art keeps him focused on what's important in life, his family," said his mother. 

Angel Voigt, who is an assistant vet at the Animal Protection Society, also produced artworks for the exhibition and told the Samoa Observer that she uses her art to express feelings she cannot describe with words. 

"Sometimes I draw about depression, violence against women and children and just social issues that are hard to talk about," she said.

Ms. Voigt recently lost her father, Walter Voigt but her mother Muliagatele Lydwina Fruean Voigt was there to support her with her younger siblings. Her younger brother, Cassius Voigt said that he was proud of his older sister.

"I am very proud of my sister Angel. I hope to be like her some day," he said.

Muliagatele said Angel deals with her dark feelings through her art. 

"I know she has these dark feelings which I realise comes through her art so I am surprised at times by what she creates, but that is who she is," she said.