Benjamin Akuila

This work is part of Curatorial+Co.'s 2026 group exhibition, 'The Beast In Me'.

Of all the internal mechanisms that drive us, perhaps the most primordial is the beast. We expel the animal, the bodily, the base in favour of the intellect, yet it is the beast that holds what is most irreducibly human—impulses and desires that precede thought: love, rage, care, protection, connection. The very thing we suppress is also the thing that touches what is most vital.

Benjamin Akuila's work draws inspiration from daily rituals of care and beauty associated with the upkeep of Pasifika hair. Its form references traditional carving practices, hairpin adornments, and fauna within the Kingdom of Tonga. Traditionally these objects alive both socially and materially through personal use and bodily engagement.

By replicating hairpins in stoneware and enlarging their scale, the work transforms the original relationship between these objects and its user. Their function shifts from practical to visual, making commentary on how cultural objects are perceived when removed from their practical context. The gold finish references contemporary forms of adornment and material culture in Tonga, such as the nifo koula (gold tooth), which acts a symbol of shared experience and identification within the diaspora.

Through the blending of traditional and contemporary material cultures, the work operates as both homage and humorous spectacle. It considers the different forms of value, engagement, and hierarchy assigned to functional cultural objects, contemporary artworks, and bodily adornment, questioning how meaning is produced through context, scale, and display.