Caving in Nuku'alofa

It was marvellous to bend, crawl, climb, and gasp through the complex of bright caves that Adam Douglass, the On the Spot collective, the Seleka Club, and two hundred volunteers have created at On the Spot's headquarters in central Nuku'alofa and called Vataulua.

Imagine a tropical Lascaux Cave, in which visual discussions of political and social issues of the twenty-first century, like police violence and religious intolerance, sit alongside the shamanic motifs - forests, wild beasts, hunters - that ripple across the walls of ancient caves, and you'll have a sense of the power and mystery of Vataulua. My oldest son enjoyed crawling with a torch to the secret room where the shadows of sharks and whales purused each other across dim walls. 

I reviewed the show that Sally Richardson did with On the Spot back in 2013, when I was last in Nuku'alofa;  it was great to return to the collective's headquarters and find more magic. I'll write a proper review of Vataulua as soon as I'm back in Auckland and have recovered from the Tongatapu flu epidemic.

[Posted by Scott Hamilton]