Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 Ruki Fame
Port Moresby,
Ruki Fame was born in Nagameto Village in the Eastern Highlands. He was the first Papuan New Guinean to become a metal sculptor. Trained originally as a welder in Port Moresby, he attracted the attention of Georgina Beier, an Australian artist who was living and working there. She began to teach him to make iron lamps and wall hangings of perforated steel. Following three months of training with Georgina, he spent a short period with Tom Craig at Goroka Teachers College in 1971, then returned to Port Moresby, where he attended the National Art School for a further five years.
Ruki has received commissions to create major installations for highly visible locations within the city of Port Moresby and Goroka. Among these is a steel wall sculpture for the University of Papua New Guinea and another for the Agricultural Bank. His work can be found in the collections of the Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia, and the Museum fur Volkerlunde und Switzseriches in Basle. In 2003 he attended a symposium in China, where he worked alongside metal artists from 23 countries.
These days Ruki lives and works in Port Moresby. He is committed to exploring through his work themes that reflect the cultural diversity of his country.
Ruki says about his work, "I really like working as a metal sculptor, especially on a large scale. Some artists draw [their designs] but I just think about it. I work without stopping from 6am to 6pm and I complete a piece in a week - I never do a drawing, just take it from my head. I just cut them in pieces and put them together. All my work is traditional, not western style - it has to come from Papua New Guinea, and I explain the stories. For instance, I like to create pigs because my grandfather used to sleep with the pigs in the house."
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