Visesio Siasau’s creative ambitions are directed towards sculpted wooden Tongan divinity forms, which he re-makes in a range of styles, stances, and materials including perspex, glass, stone, wood, and bronze. His twenty-first century approach to an old form presents a challenge for contemporary Tongan Christian politics because of his negative criticism of the church’s impact on Tongan stories, thinking, and traditional ways of life. Siasau’s sculptures carry a message beyond his politics—they hold and express his personal responsibility for teaching specialized knowledge.

Visesio Siasau, also known as Sio, has completed a Masters degree at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in New Zealand. He is a cultural practitioner from He Waka Hiringa, the first Masters of Applied Indigenous Knowledge degree program in the Pacific. Sio self-identifies as a tufungaʻi – practitioner and draws on Tongan epistemologies as his pathway to understanding things passed down by traditional knowledge keepers. Sio has represented both Aotearoa, New Zealand and Tonga in an international context, and is the first Tongan recipient to be awarded the prestigious James Wallace Art Award.