Pacific People – My Favourite Things

Rusiate Lali describes himself as a fourth generation artist of the Fiji islands. His works show a stunning Melanesian aesthetic energised with powerful modernist expression … Rusiate Lali is a man of his times. Coming from a long lineage of potters, carvers, tapa cloth and fibre artists, Rusiate is one of the most exciting and provocative artists to exhibit at Sigatoka’s Lancaster Press Gallery.

Among his nominated favourite things are:

• Favourite book – currently reading a book on Dorothy Napangardi aboriginal artist from Alice Springs represented by Gallery Gondwana.
• Favourite fruit – Rusi eats healthy. His diet has no added sugar or salt, and grows his own food on his land. He also likes growing dalo cassava vegetables and bananas on his four- acre plot.
• Favourite thing to do for fun – working his plantation, spending time in his studio and to wind down with some red wine and rum (mixed together) and good tunes.
• Favourite rum – Ratu rum (Fiji Rum Co.).
• Favourite exercise – He wakes up at 3am every day and does home workouts for two hours with breathing and flexibility exercises after a good weights session.
• Spends time in his studio every day 7.30am till 7pm aims to do 1-2 paintings per day. His most recent piece is called WTF which stands for Water Tree and Fishing (far left).
• Favourite artist: Brett Whitely; (interestingly Brett Whitely spent time in Fiji in the 70’s). Rusi’s favourite artwork of Brett’s is called: ‘Two Giraffes No 1’ painted 1965 (above left).
• Favourite medium to work with – spray paint and acrylics, collage and multi- media. He also paints some pretty cool shoes (left).