By Ali Ikram
You might remember the story of an artist who lived with a pig.
He's back – and this time he's got an art show that's trying to explode the stereotyped images of the Pacific Islands and its people.
Kalisolaite 'Uhila lived with a pig for eight days last year. He’s now one of the most exciting new performance artists in the country
He says his latest work – as a man who turned into a chair – is “better than living with the pig”.
During the art piece, Ite’s niece sits on his lap, using him as a human chair, a bench, and finally as a bed.
The Tongans in the audience will recognise this as a reference to fa'e huki, a relative the bride or groom will sit on at a wedding.
Not everyone in the audience understood, with one attendee asking if he could take a seat. Ite explained, “Sorry, I’m not your chair, I’m my niece’s chair”.
Ite, whose next plan is to live rough for a fortnight in Pakuranga, doesn’t seem to care whether his work is witnessed or not.
He did a work called Family Tree, where he “fell out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down”. It wasn’t filmed, leaving the question: If a performance artist falls out of a tree and no one is around, does he make a splash?
Watch the video to see the performance
3 News