Like psychic maps, his works explore the interconnectedness of all things; religious scenes freely intermingle with traditional motifs and contemporary technology, combining, in one recent exhibition, ambulances, aeroplanes and crucifixions entwined with vines and mythic creatures. Pule is the storyteller and through the narratives of his own history and relationships, he threads fantastic fictions. Curator Ron Brownson has written that his “pictographs are like a potent sequence of film stills which can project the shapes of memory, dreams and intuition”.

With the turn of the millennium, Pule adopted a distinctively new style of vividly coloured clouds and vines, interconnecting floating scenes of bustling, surrealist activity. A large suite of these works can also be found on campus: in 2003 Pule was commissioned by The University of Auckland to design a set of ten windows for the new buildings of Pacific Studies, contributing to the skin of the building with images that act like an outer cloak, tattoo or protection. Artworks commissioned from other artists for the Fale Pasifika are also integrated into the building as the entry paving or gateway or in the construction of the Fale itself, providing links to the past and present in these living buildings.

Andrew Clifford