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BIOGRAPHY
Sheyne Tuffery is an Wellington based multi-media visual artist: whose primary mediums are painting, animation and printmaking. Perhaps best known for the dynamic style of his prints and woodcuts, Sheyne describes himself as a paper architect who uses his work to create and represent his own cultural context and sense of belonging.
His prints and paintings often envisage Polynesia as a futuristic urban utopia; with the Samoan fale as the symbolic archetype for skyscrapers, apartment housing and rocket ships (vaka). These works reflect Sheyne’s research into his Samoan heritage and symbolism, his travel wanderlust and his taste for big overseas cities. They also reveal ongoing influences, the world of fantasy, comics, and cartoons, which add a sense of immediacy and humour to his subject matter.
In 2005 Tuffery lived on the shores of the Manukau harbour where he became aware of Manukau's bird population and local bird lore. He became fascinated by New Zealand's geological history as a singular landmass (a vaka), and natural sanctuary for a vast array of bird species, including the extinct one's like the giant penguin.Tuffery draws on his own associations to Samoa (meaning 'sacred bird') and to cars (especially the 'extinct' ones) as symbols of urban - migration vaka.
