Time Warps in Tiapapata
Earlier this year, Caitlin Moloney and I were fortunate to spend time at the Tiapapata Art Centre in Samoa for an artist residency. The purpose of this residency was simple: to step outside our familiar surroundings, immerse ourselves in a different culture, and see how being in a new environment might transform our work.
Residencies such as this create the space for artists to explore without the distractions of everyday life. They allow us to slow down, to pay attention, and to create in dialogue with people and places beyond our own, making new work in an environment where every interaction and experience feeds into the process. For both of us, Tiapapata offered this opportunity in a way that was both grounding and expansive. We could explore our respective practices: Caitlin with ceramics, and myself working in sound.
Perched in the lush hills above Apia, Tiapapata Art Centre is a hub for artists from Samoa and abroad. The centre itself is alive with daily activity – studios open to the warm tropical breeze, a café and communal spaces that invite conversation, a dojo where locals and expats practise MMA, boxing, and jiu-jitsu. There’s also a papermaking workshop, where Awal from Ghana creates beautiful handmade paper using native and pest plants. From the beginning, it felt like a place that encouraged openness: to experiment, to connect, and to learn.
What made the residency extraordinary was the intensity of the process. We had never made work like this in such a condensed time away from New Zealand before. It was as if doors flew open inside us – we found new spaces and resources within ourselves, discovering fresh ways of working. This is the beauty of traveling: tapping into new ways of experiencing ourselves and others.
For me, the residency culminated in the creation of Vā, a twelve-track album built from field recordings, collaborations, underwater sounds, and bass-heavy electronic production.
The sounds became like an audio and visceral journal – a literal way of recording our time together.
Recordings of rainstorms, village life, birds, and sand on the coral reef merged with electronic textures, forming music that reflects both the environment and the connections forged during our stay. This album will be released in March next year, with a couple of singles coming out before then.
For Caitlin, the experience felt like entering a time warp of intense making, as though a deep tap root had reached into the earth and fuelled her creativity. Working with clay in Samoa meant adapting to new materials and conditions, but it also pushed her into a hugely experimental and ambitious project.
To emerge with a single finished ceramic piece that held the weight of that process was an incredible achievement – one that carries the imprint of land, memory, and presence. The resulting piece, titled Skin, is extraordinary. We are now working through ideas for an exhibition of this piece and others emerging from the residency.
Being surrounded by other makers in such a fluid and transient environment was also inspiring. Meeting artists from different disciplines, each working in their own way, stretched our thinking in exciting directions. The conversations and chance encounters were catalysts, sparking ideas we might never have reached on our own.
The outcomes of the residency are tangible – an album, a ceramic piece – but perhaps more importantly, the residency gave us new ways of seeing and creating. It reminded us of the importance of stepping outside the known, of taking time to work slowly and with care, and of trusting that place and people will leave their mark on what you make. If you are an artist, we highly recommend seeking out residency opportunities; it can open you up to a whole new way of working.
We are grateful to the Tiapapata Art Centre for holding space for this kind of work, and to the people of Samoa for their warmth and openness. Our practices are richer for it, and the conversations we began there continue to resonate long after our return.
You can see more of our work from the residency on our Instagram pages:@mattsoniclab and @caitlinmoloneyartist
Other links: Caitlin’s website: www.caitlinmoloney.com
Mats website: www.mattsephton.nz
Matts bandcamp https://mattrapid.bandcamp.com/
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