On Civicness and participating in public life through art practice
Panel discussion in Berlin
On 02 October 2021, Contemporary HUM continues its series of panel discussions, this time focusing on Aotearoa’s large artist contingent in Berlin, and throughout Europe. Guest speakers include Glasgow-based Cat Auburn; Berlin-based Ruth Buchanan; and Warsaw-based Daniel Malone. HUM’s Editor Pauline Autet will be moderating.
This discussion will explore the idea of ‘civicness’ and how it is tied to social responsibility within a global community, taken from the perspective of three artists from Aotearoa who are actively taking part in public life through their practice.
On 02 October 2021, Contemporary HUM continues its series of panel discussions, this time focusing on Aotearoa’s large artist contingent in Berlin, and throughout Europe. Guest speakers include Glasgow-based Cat Auburn; Berlin-based Ruth Buchanan; and Warsaw-based Daniel Malone. HUM’s Editor Pauline Autet will be moderating.
This discussion will explore the idea of ‘civicness’ and how it is tied to social responsibility within a global community, taken from the perspective of three artists from Aotearoa who are actively taking part in public life through their practice.
Writing
Directions in Art Publishing during Covid-19
By Freya Copeland
10.09.2021
Reflecting on the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world of independent book publishing, artist, curator and co-founder of Berlin-based Replika Publishing, Freya Copeland, reflects on the history of artists’ books and the role of independent publishing. She considers the lessons the industry can learn after a year and a half without art book fairs—usually an essential opportunity for publishers to meet collaborators, distributors and other publishers, and how the world of art book publishing might evolve going forward.
Writing
On Louise Stevenson's 'Someplace Else'
By Chris Holdaway
24.08.2021
In Someplace Else, Louise Stevenson chronicles her complex and unfolding relationship with Hungary, travelling back and forth from Aotearoa since her first visit in 1991. In this elaborate, handbound mixed media book, Stevenson traces decades of travel with careful preservation of ephemera, annotating ticket stubs and found photographs with her own drawings and writing. In this piece, poet and bookmaker Chris Holdaway considers the memories that inhere in overlooked items, repurposed carefully by Stevenson as talismans of place and the passage of time.
Writing
Talk, Protest, Revolt
By Frances Loeffler
06.08.2021
In the 2021 documentary Revolt She Said, filmmaker Louise Lever traces the histories and critical concerns of feminist movements in Aotearoa. Frances Loeffler reflects on the complex questions raised by the film and the impact of recent feminist movements in the art world.
Calendar
Zac Langdon Pole, Eureka!
04 September —
02 October 2021
VIN VIN Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Israel Birch, Nikau Hindin, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Nova Paul and Rachael Rakena at Naadohbii: To Draw Water
14 August 2021 — 17 February 2022
WAG-Qaumajuq, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada
Writing
Plant Data
By Alice Bonnot
22.07.2021
Porto-based New Zealand artist Yota Ayaan investigates the possibilities of human-plant communication in Plant Data, an exhibition at the Galeria da Biodiversidade, Centro Ciência Viva, in Porto’s Botanical garden. After visiting the show, writer and curator Alice Bonnot discusses here the urgent lessons that can be gleaned from it in the current climate crisis.
Calendar
Virginia Leonard, Odd & Even
04 September —
28 November 2021
Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France
Writing
Charting the Constellations of the Oceans, Rivers, and Islands
By Julie Nagam
09.07.2021
As the inaugural Artistic Director for Nuit Blanche Toronto (2020 and 2022), Dr Julie Nagam is interested in forging new relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, in Turtle Island (North America) and internationally, and in the use of digital and new media to express shared experiences of colonialism. Here, Nagam introduces several recent projects undertaken in collaboration with artists and curators from Aotearoa and the new global partnership The Space Between Us, emerging from these cross-cultural exchanges.
Writing
Some Kind of Travelogue
By Esther Lu
18.06.2021
Aotearoa-based artist Sorawit Songsataya’s practice explores the many tangents that connect and redefine our understandings of subjectivity and ecology. Songsataya was invited to participate in the group show, The Turn of the Fifth Age, at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung, Indonesia, earlier this year, where they exhibited their work Jupiter. Here, co-curator Esther Lu responds to that work.
A protest and a mourning ritual
By Michelangelo Corsaro
11.05.2021
In their work for the 13th Gwangju Biennale, the Bad Fiji Gyals call attention to the legacy of Girmitiya women, indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent recruited by British colonial authorities to work on Fiji’s sugarcane plantations. Associate Curator Michelangelo Corsaro writes about the collaborative work of Aotearoa-based artist Quishile Charan and US-based artist Esha Pillay.
In their work for the 13th Gwangju Biennale, the Bad Fiji Gyals call attention to the legacy of Girmitiya women, indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent recruited by British colonial authorities to work on Fiji’s sugarcane plantations. Associate Curator Michelangelo Corsaro writes about the collaborative work of Aotearoa-based artist Quishile Charan and US-based artist Esha Pillay.
Project
Championing Aotearoa New Zealand women artists
Partnership
Contemporary HUM is excited to launch our partnership with AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions. The Paris-based non-profit organisation, founded in 2014, focuses on the creation, indexation and distribution of information on women artists of the 20th century. During our partnership with AWARE we have worked on including more Aotearoa New Zealand women artists in their online profiles. AWARE is a great resource for championing women artists and we’re thrilled to be working with them. A huge thanks to Creative New Zealand for making this partnership possible.
Calendar
Simon Denny, INFORMATION (Today)
25 June —
10 October 2021
Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
Calendar
Greg Semu, Kalisolaite ‘Uhila and Edith Amituanai at the Biennale Jogja XVI
06 October —
14 November 2021
Biennale Jogja, Indonesia
Calendar
Len Lye, Movement Making Movement
23 April —
26 September 2021
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Michael Stevenson, Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief
03 July — 19 September 2021
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Writing
Forever Fresh Talanoa Series
By AJ Fata, Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Drew Broderick, Josh Tengan
29.05.2021
The third episode of our four-part talanoa series, produced in collaboration with In*ter*is*land Collective, sees writer and poet Anne-Marie Te Whiu respond to a discussion between AJ Fata, Josh Tengan, and Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick who explore the concept of time and ancestral knowledge as a path for the historical future.
Writing
Ann Shelton’s Strange Flowers Set the Stage
By Katie White
14.04.2021
Inspired by ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, Ann Shelton's photographs subtly recall both ancient and contemporary female archetypes and the subversive histories of natural medicine - a sharp reminder of our forgotten affinities with nature in the current moment of climate crisis and the ongoing politicisation of female bodies.
Calendar
Natasha Matila-Smith, Deme Te Atawhai Scott, Salome Tanuvasa and Yvonne Todd
16 July —
14 November 2021
Paul Ramsay Galleries and ANZ/Zauner Grand Foyer, MAMA, Albury, Australia
Writing
An interview with Joel Kirkham
By Catherine Dale
22.10.2020
Based in Japan for the past ten years, Joel Kirkham founded Goya Curtain in Tokyo with fellow artist Bjorn Houtman in 2016, and has since been running the gallery. Together with Catherine Dale, he discusses the project space, the exhibitions it has hosted since opening, including Anoushka Akel's recent show (RED LEGS) HOT HEAD, and the future direction for Goya Curtain.
Time and Water
By Maya Wilson-Sanchez
03.09.2020
Presented earlier this year at Oakville Galleries in Canada, Shannon Te Ao's two-channel video and sound installation Ka mua, ka muri recently opened at Remai Modern, Saskatoon. In this part essay, part dialogue, writer Maya Wilson-Sanchez examines Te Ao's new project, and meditates on the relationships between indigenous populations in colonised nations.
Presented earlier this year at Oakville Galleries in Canada, Shannon Te Ao's two-channel video and sound installation Ka mua, ka muri recently opened at Remai Modern, Saskatoon. In this part essay, part dialogue, writer Maya Wilson-Sanchez examines Te Ao's new project, and meditates on the relationships between indigenous populations in colonised nations.
Writing
Listening Like Breathing
By Ron Hanson
09.12.2020
Although an influential figure in the development of sound art, New York-based Annea Lockwood hasn't experienced the same level of exposure in New Zealand as she has experienced internationally. In this piece, White Fungus' editor Ron Hanson outlines his journey discovering Lockwood's work and speaks to the artist about her impressive career and pivotal developments in her field.
Writing
Forever Fresh
By Jessica Palalagi
06.11.2020
Jessica Palalagi, co-founder of the In*ter*is*land Collective, describes how their physical base in London, MOKU Pacific HQ, London, has served as a place for tagata Moana in the UK to create and meet since its inception in 2018, and reflects on the highs and lows of the past three years, including their exhibition in late 2019, Mana Moana, Mana Wahine.
