“ What a great news indeed! Congratulations Semisi Fetokai Potauaine on your huge achievement on behalf of the tiny Kingdom of Tonga. What a rare opportunity for such thoughtful and skillful artists as the calibre of Semisi to showcase the depth and breadth of Tongan thinking and feeling alongside the cultures of the world.
Semisi has taken Tongan kupesi as a work of material art in tufunga lalava (kafa-sennit-interlacing / lashing [that is, intersecting or connecting and separating]) to a whole new exciting level, in original, creative and innovative ways.
Herein, Semisi has uniquely made it his trademark by shifting Tongan kupesi from their two-dimensional use in such old material arts as tufunga tatatau (tattooing) and tufunga ngaohikulo (pottery-making) and such fine arts as nimamea'a koka'anga (bark-cloth-making) and nimamea'a lalanga (weaving) to their clever four-dimensional use in such new material arts as tufunga tongi/taukamea (steel-cutting) and tufunga tongi/ta'akau (wood-cutting) amongst others.
This is most evident in his so-called iconic works of art in sculpture, notably as twin Hinavakamea and Tunavakamea, Lei'ataua, Manuesina and Vaka'ahina, where an infinite number of kupesi are formally and substantially integrated (and not merely imposed) as integral parts, which are in constant motion in multi-directional and multi-dimensional ways. ”