Pacific Identity through Space and Time in Lily Laita's Va i Ta

Abstract

This essay considers Lily Laita’s exploration of Pacific identity through space and time iin her large-scale, four-part painting Va i Ta Taeao Lalata E Aunoa Ma Gagana, created in 2000. Va i Ta constitutes a visual representation of Pacific identity and how it relates to notions of the vā (space between). The Samoan concept of vā evokes an ever-shifting and productive paradigm that eschews linear or static understandings of space and time. Indeed, the vā represents a dynamic moment that contains the present, past, and future. This “in-between” space bursts with potential and creativity. In Va i Ta Taeao Lalata E Aunoa Ma Gagana, Laita follows the creative impulse to work in a space without time or tense. The result is a timeless painting that illustrates Pacific identity as it is linked to the space-time continuum of the vā.