_{Image: Kalisoliate ‘Uhila, Mohe / Sleep, 2025. Courtesy of Michael Lett Gallery. Photography: Robert George}

Tuesdays and Thursdays
10am - 5pm

Auckland University of Technology
Level 1, WM Building
40 St Paul Street

Kalisoliate ‘Uhila’s performance for A Time of Waiting cannot be seen in isolation from his night-shift job. Instead, it might be said to operate at the intersection of the work – sleep – recreation schema, which, as Samuel Parnell advocated, should be in equal proportions for a healthy work-life balance. For the duration of the exhibition, ‘Uhila will occupy the gallery two days per week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Timed to begin once his 6pm to 6am security shift work concludes, ’Uhila shifts the ‘rest’ portion of his daily routine to the gallery, and will sleep in situ across these days. This act of making the private activity of sleeping public is extended to Te Wai Ngutu Kākā’s online platform as well as Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, which will receive a live feed on the days he undertakes his performance. In this way, while ’Uhila’s professional role of surveilling concludes at 6am, Christchurch visitors ironically continue to monitor him via the live feed.

^{Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (b.1981, Tongan) received a Bachelor of Visual Arts from AUT (2010), followed by a Masters of Performance & Media Arts (2016). His Masters thesis, Maumau-taimi: Wasting Time; Being Useless, explored perspectives of wasting time versus time well wasted in the field of art. ‘Uhila seeks to understand language and patterns hidden inside the body, through live performance. The expression of his ideas takes place unrehearsed, often requiring endurance, in both gallery spaces and a variety of outside locations. His first performance in a gallery was Pigs in the Yard held at the Mangere Arts Centre (2011) where it won the Auckland Fringe Festival award for best Visual Art. ‘Uhila went on to develop a range of significant projects such as sleeping rough for two weeks Te Tuhi for Mo‘ui tukuhausia (2012), and for three months at Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery as a Walters Prize finalist (2014). In 2015, ‘Uhila spent six-hours a day conducting the tide of Oriental Bay, Wellington for Ongo Mei Moana. ‘Uhila has undertaken multiple artist residencies, including the Montalvo Arts Centre Residency, California (2018), Youkobo Art Space Residency, Tokyo (2018), and ZK/U & Ifa Galerie Residency, Berlin (2020). He was also awarded the Harriet Friedlander Residency by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand (2021).}