Edith Amituanai

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1980
Samoan, Pasifika

Tup$ hits the human flag

  • 2016
  • Digital photograph, mounted on dibond
  • Purchased 2022
  • 1060 x 1295mm
  • 2022/022
  • View on google maps

Made in Edith Amituanai’s home suburb of Rānui in West Auckland, this photograph is from the ongoing series ETA (Edith’s Talent Agency). Began in 2015, the series blends street and documentary photography. Edith is active in her community and collaborates with the people in her photographs, forming trusting and long-lasting relationships before taking her camera out. Here Tup$ pulls a classic parkour move, known as the human flag, against the backdrop of the local dairy. His horizontal body is an impressive physical feat – playful and streetwise, like the stylised S on the end of his name. The artist’s photograph records Tup$’s agility and asserts his agency as he moves and pulls stunts through the neighbourhood.

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )

Exhibition History