Artist Benjamin (Benny) Akuila has transformed their ceramic tiki mask purses into a large-scale illuminated inflatable installation for Parramatta Lanes Festival, inviting visitors to walk through the work.

Drawing on his ongoing series of ceramic sculptures, Akuila explores cultural commodification, queer allegory and the ways cultural symbols are reinterpreted within the tourist attractions of the Kingdom of Tonga. The inflatable format expands these ideas beyond the scale and fragility of ceramics, allowing audiences to physically enter and move around the sculpture.

Combining references to Godzilla and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the work embraces scale, spectacle and camp. Its central form is a giant tiki purse with a wide-open mouth and a sei (frangipani) tucked behind her ear, creating an immersive public artwork that brings together cultural signification, extravagance and community.