FROM OUR COLLECTION: Aute, alofa ia te oe / Hibiscus, I love you - 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

This beautiful 1000 piece puzzle has been created for Auckland Museum's FROM OUR COLLECTION range.
The image has been sourced from Aute, alofa ia te oe / Hibiscus, I love you by Serene Hodgman, a ready made polypropylene mat with additional weaving of satin ribbon floral pattern from the collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira.


Artist Serene Hodgman was born in Auckland and is of Samoan, Rotuman, Tongan and Irish descent.
Serene completed a 6-month student exchange at The University of Hawai'i at Manoa in 2016 when she was at Elam School of Fine Arts. She took classes in Advanced Drawing and Lithography and one project required students to draw 100 self-portraits and the more she thought about how she saw herself, the more she found herself researching Samoan ‘ie toga, Cook Islands’ tivaevae and Tongan koloa. Serene saw herself in the work of women before her. Their craft felt like home. 

A year later she travelled to Samoa to research and document lalaga (weaving) in Fai‘a‘ai, a village on the island of Savai‘i. Back home she also began experimenting with weaving with plastic and ‘local’ materials using readymade plastic mats and satin ribbon. Serene was fascinated by the ways her generation of New Zealand born Pacific people found ways to use plastic substitutes for traditional items and materials that were not available here. 
Since then, Serene has experimented by weaving phrases that speak to younger Pacific-New Zealand generations like herself as well as floral patterns that are inspired by the crafts of Moana women and in particular her Nana’s garden in West Auckland. As Serene says: “I love experimenting with patterns, colour and rhythms that tell stories and bring joy to people. I hope when people see my works, they see home in them too.”