Calendar
Calendar
The HUM calendar features exhibitions & events by New Zealand arts practitioners working or living abroad.
Field Recordings presentation at Centre Pompidou's Cosmopolis exhibition
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
10.00AM — 4.00PM
16 December 2017
Founded in 2016, the collective Field Recordings is made up of 5 New Zealand and Chinese artists: Jim Speers, Clinton Watkins, Tu Rapana Neill, Guo Zixuan and Li Xiaofei. In the context of the exhibition Cosmopolis at the Pompidou Centre, the collective were invited to present Let the Water Flow (2016), a film work that evokes the precarious existence of migrant workers on the banks of the Suzhou river in Shanghai, shedding light on their relation with a globalized economy and its impact on this urban environment.
Founded in 2016, the collective Field Recordings is made up of 5 New Zealand and Chinese artists: Jim Speers, Clinton Watkins, Tu Rapana Neill, Guo Zixuan and Li Xiaofei. In the context of the exhibition Cosmopolis at the Pompidou Centre, the collective were invited to present Let the Water Flow (2016), a film work that evokes the precarious existence of migrant workers on the banks of the Suzhou river in Shanghai, shedding light on their relation with a globalized economy and its impact on this urban environment.
Dane Mitchell at Bunkier Sztuki
Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland
16 December 2017 —
18 March 2018
Communicating Vessels presents the work of 13 artists that revolve around objects and installations constructed as either processes or events. The exhibition’s title draws on the mechanisms of physics, which become a point of reference when depicting the characteristics of process-oriented artworks. These, making use of materials susceptible to transformations, act like liquids contained in communicating vessel systems: under certain circumstances their matter begins to circulate, takes forms different from the original ones, yet their essence remains unchanged. Dane Mitchell’s installation All Whatness Is Wetness, based on evaporation of water and on the rules of homoeopathy, affects caramel-made sculptures by another artist presented Agata Ingarden: by plasticising them it entails the risk of their transformation.
Communicating Vessels let the audience explore a space where one work after another—each employing transfigurations of artistic means or producing situations that actively involve the viewer—sets off the carnal awareness of existence. It is an exhibition in process, one to be revisited in different moments so as to follow the trail marked by the passing of works and their rebirth in new shapes, states and locations.
Communicating Vessels presents the work of 13 artists that revolve around objects and installations constructed as either processes or events. The exhibition’s title draws on the mechanisms of physics, which become a point of reference when depicting the characteristics of process-oriented artworks. These, making use of materials susceptible to transformations, act like liquids contained in communicating vessel systems: under certain circumstances their matter begins to circulate, takes forms different from the original ones, yet their essence remains unchanged. Dane Mitchell’s installation All Whatness Is Wetness, based on evaporation of water and on the rules of homoeopathy, affects caramel-made sculptures by another artist presented Agata Ingarden: by plasticising them it entails the risk of their transformation.
Communicating Vessels let the audience explore a space where one work after another—each employing transfigurations of artistic means or producing situations that actively involve the viewer—sets off the carnal awareness of existence. It is an exhibition in process, one to be revisited in different moments so as to follow the trail marked by the passing of works and their rebirth in new shapes, states and locations.
Kate Newby at Aspen Art Museum
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, U.S.A.
15 December 2017 —
01 April 2018
What do you do every day that you most look forward to? What are your daily practices and do they make you feel connected to something greater, or to yourself? The AAM’s exhibition considers the ways in which rituals impact culture, community, and how we are known, both as individuals and collectively. Generally defined as a series of established actions carried out for spiritual, social, political, and personal significance, rituals are embedded into everyday life. This exhibition presents a diverse collection of works by over fifteen artists exploring the act of ritual through three distinct rites: rites of passage, communal rites, and rites of personal devotion. The show reaffirms the ability of rituals to constantly transform our perceptions, our perspectives, and ultimately our experiences. Kate Newby presents Legs, Legs (2014).
What do you do every day that you most look forward to? What are your daily practices and do they make you feel connected to something greater, or to yourself? The AAM’s exhibition considers the ways in which rituals impact culture, community, and how we are known, both as individuals and collectively. Generally defined as a series of established actions carried out for spiritual, social, political, and personal significance, rituals are embedded into everyday life. This exhibition presents a diverse collection of works by over fifteen artists exploring the act of ritual through three distinct rites: rites of passage, communal rites, and rites of personal devotion. The show reaffirms the ability of rituals to constantly transform our perceptions, our perspectives, and ultimately our experiences. Kate Newby presents Legs, Legs (2014).
Kah Bee Chow in Digital Distress – Consumed by Infinity
Signal - Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden.
08 December 2017 —
25 March 2018
This could be an example of AI generated concrete poetry, or how digitalization appears in the augmented reality of our everyday lives. The interface between cloud and body, hardware and soul.
Kah Bee Chow presents two furry robotic vacuum cleaners performing an intricate choreography – part household chores, part improvised couple dancing – in an algorithmic balance between technical aid and pet-like behavior.
This could be an example of AI generated concrete poetry, or how digitalization appears in the augmented reality of our everyday lives. The interface between cloud and body, hardware and soul.
Kah Bee Chow presents two furry robotic vacuum cleaners performing an intricate choreography – part household chores, part improvised couple dancing – in an algorithmic balance between technical aid and pet-like behavior.
InDigiNous Aotearoa Virtual Histories, Augmented Futures
Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada.
01 December 2017 —
20 January 2018
Virtual histories are a form of fictional writing that apply a ‘what if’ scenario to history. For example, ‘what if Christopher Columbus did not discover the Americas’, or ‘what if Able Tasman did not discover New Zealand’? Of course neither Columbus nor Tasman were responsible for discovering either of those lands, and the artists in this exhibition explore this idea of ‘virtual histories’ in relation to these types of so called ‘true histories’.
The artworks in this exhibition are made by seven Māori artists from Aotearoa New Zealand who use digital media to create real and virtual spaces for Indigenous knowledge. The exhibition includes a range of media from virtual reality and augmented reality artworks, through to video games, projection installation and 3D printing. Each artwork critiques dominate histories and perceptions of Indigenous peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, and postulates on how different the world might be for Indigenous peoples in the future. Artists are Reweti Arapere, Hana Rakena, Rachael Rakena, Kereama Taepa, Suzanne Tamaki, Johnson Witehira, Rangituhia Hollis.
Virtual histories are a form of fictional writing that apply a ‘what if’ scenario to history. For example, ‘what if Christopher Columbus did not discover the Americas’, or ‘what if Able Tasman did not discover New Zealand’? Of course neither Columbus nor Tasman were responsible for discovering either of those lands, and the artists in this exhibition explore this idea of ‘virtual histories’ in relation to these types of so called ‘true histories’.
The artworks in this exhibition are made by seven Māori artists from Aotearoa New Zealand who use digital media to create real and virtual spaces for Indigenous knowledge. The exhibition includes a range of media from virtual reality and augmented reality artworks, through to video games, projection installation and 3D printing. Each artwork critiques dominate histories and perceptions of Indigenous peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, and postulates on how different the world might be for Indigenous peoples in the future. Artists are Reweti Arapere, Hana Rakena, Rachael Rakena, Kereama Taepa, Suzanne Tamaki, Johnson Witehira, Rangituhia Hollis.
Sarah Rose in in Lilt, Twang, Tremor
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland
18 November 2017 —
14 January 2018
For this exhibition, CCA invites three Scottish artists whose work examines the politics and production of voice.
Sarah Rose’s practice results from an interest in how the voice constructs prejudices and bias, investigating the vocal transmission of information, such as rumour, translation and inflection. Responding to the limitations of printed text, she explores how the unwritten voice might reject a gendering of narrative. Her sculptural installations examine how objects hold sound and tell stories in space, and how information is shaped through its oral communication. Through an in-depth research in to specific materials, climates and histories, her work in this show aims to locate the political within sound, volume and material.
For this exhibition, CCA invites three Scottish artists whose work examines the politics and production of voice.
Sarah Rose’s practice results from an interest in how the voice constructs prejudices and bias, investigating the vocal transmission of information, such as rumour, translation and inflection. Responding to the limitations of printed text, she explores how the unwritten voice might reject a gendering of narrative. Her sculptural installations examine how objects hold sound and tell stories in space, and how information is shaped through its oral communication. Through an in-depth research in to specific materials, climates and histories, her work in this show aims to locate the political within sound, volume and material.
Kerry Ann Lee: Red Letter at Rrreplica_03
Rrréplica 03, Casa del Hijo del Ahuizote, Mexico City, Mexico
17 November —
19 November 2017
Kerry Ann Lee's Red Letter Distro will be presenting new New Zealand independent art publishing at Rrreplica_03, at Casa de Hijo del Ahuizote from 17-19 November. Rrréplica is a gathering of 'unruly publishers', for the discussion and dissemination of risographic and small press works to cultivate the right to dissent, attend the urgency and resonate. Casa de El Hijo del Ahuizote is a space, an archive, a publishing project and a museum. Located in what were the workshops of El Hijo del Ahuizote, a legendary satirical newspaper of opposition and resistance to the tyrannical regime of Porfirio Díaz during the late 19th and early 20th century, it served as a matrix of the first revolutionary movement in Mexico, led by a group of journalists that soon derived into radical anarchism.
Kerry Ann Lee's Red Letter Distro will be presenting new New Zealand independent art publishing at Rrreplica_03, at Casa de Hijo del Ahuizote from 17-19 November. Rrréplica is a gathering of 'unruly publishers', for the discussion and dissemination of risographic and small press works to cultivate the right to dissent, attend the urgency and resonate. Casa de El Hijo del Ahuizote is a space, an archive, a publishing project and a museum. Located in what were the workshops of El Hijo del Ahuizote, a legendary satirical newspaper of opposition and resistance to the tyrannical regime of Porfirio Díaz during the late 19th and early 20th century, it served as a matrix of the first revolutionary movement in Mexico, led by a group of journalists that soon derived into radical anarchism.
Fiona Amundsen, Dieneke Jansen and Natalie Robertson curated by Charlotte Huddleston
Fotonoviembre, Festival Internacional de Fotografía de Tenerife, Spain.
09 November 2017 —
18 February 2018
Before is Now—Ko Muri Ko Nāianei presents the work of three artists working with photography and moving image, using techniques of documentary practices to share narratives that are both highly personal and common. The artists’ work is focused on quite different subjects— cultural and community histories and environmental protection; gentrification, social justice and the rights of government housing tenants; and the involvement of Japan in the Asia Pacific Theatre of War of Word War Two. Drawing on archival footage, testimonies, oral traditions and generational knowledge that is typically tied to specific places, the works present personal and collective narratives that through their specificity often run counter to those commonly accepted. The artists share an approach that is committed to maintaining deep relationships with the past, present, and the future, with people and in connection to place and history. In presenting this work the exhibition considers the archive as a relationship; the archive as something we are in relation to, and with.
Before is Now—Ko Muri Ko Nāianei presents the work of three artists working with photography and moving image, using techniques of documentary practices to share narratives that are both highly personal and common. The artists’ work is focused on quite different subjects— cultural and community histories and environmental protection; gentrification, social justice and the rights of government housing tenants; and the involvement of Japan in the Asia Pacific Theatre of War of Word War Two. Drawing on archival footage, testimonies, oral traditions and generational knowledge that is typically tied to specific places, the works present personal and collective narratives that through their specificity often run counter to those commonly accepted. The artists share an approach that is committed to maintaining deep relationships with the past, present, and the future, with people and in connection to place and history. In presenting this work the exhibition considers the archive as a relationship; the archive as something we are in relation to, and with.
Simon Morris: A Whole and Two Halves
PS Projectspace, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
05 November —
02 December 2017
Simon Morris presents work for the first time in Amsterdam bringing two works together, a painting A Whole and Two Halves (Yellow Ochre), and a wall drawing Walking Drawing, Amsterdam. Gravity is an essential part of Morris' process, dispersing pigment over time, creating edge and shape. The wall drawing Walking Drawing Amsterdam explores Morris’s interest in the relationship between painting and architecture. Painting directly on to the walls of the gallery, Morris uses reduction and repetition as a way of simplifying things, while bringing the spatial qualities of light, time and space of painting into focus.
Morris is in Amsterdam after completing a three-month residency at Headlands Centre for the Arts just north of San Francisco.
Simon Morris presents work for the first time in Amsterdam bringing two works together, a painting A Whole and Two Halves (Yellow Ochre), and a wall drawing Walking Drawing, Amsterdam. Gravity is an essential part of Morris' process, dispersing pigment over time, creating edge and shape. The wall drawing Walking Drawing Amsterdam explores Morris’s interest in the relationship between painting and architecture. Painting directly on to the walls of the gallery, Morris uses reduction and repetition as a way of simplifying things, while bringing the spatial qualities of light, time and space of painting into focus.
Morris is in Amsterdam after completing a three-month residency at Headlands Centre for the Arts just north of San Francisco.
Kate Newby in residency at Chinati Foundation
The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, U.S.A.
01 November —
31 December 2017
Working with a variety of media including installation, textile, ceramics, casting and glass, New York-based artist Kate Newby is a sculptor who is committed to exploring and putting pressure on the limits and nature of sculpture. As such, she is interested in not only space, volume, texture and materials, but where and how sculpture happens. Varying in scale, works are liable to take place fugaciously, as in the case of her ceramic skipping stones which she asks people to skip and have themselves photographed doing so, on the street in a given city, as in her concrete, poured puddles, or in the gallery proper, in subtly, but noticeably present architectural disruptions of the space itself. In every case the work bears a strong link to not just the every day, but to the lived—it wants to experience as much as it generates experience, collecting and registering the traces of the passing world, which it incorporates and is incorporated into. It is for this reason that if the handmade plays a very important role in what she does it is not merely romantic or even retrograde, but rather the aesthetic byproduct of a position that shamelessly embraces direct experience over the mediated.
Working with a variety of media including installation, textile, ceramics, casting and glass, New York-based artist Kate Newby is a sculptor who is committed to exploring and putting pressure on the limits and nature of sculpture. As such, she is interested in not only space, volume, texture and materials, but where and how sculpture happens. Varying in scale, works are liable to take place fugaciously, as in the case of her ceramic skipping stones which she asks people to skip and have themselves photographed doing so, on the street in a given city, as in her concrete, poured puddles, or in the gallery proper, in subtly, but noticeably present architectural disruptions of the space itself. In every case the work bears a strong link to not just the every day, but to the lived—it wants to experience as much as it generates experience, collecting and registering the traces of the passing world, which it incorporates and is incorporated into. It is for this reason that if the handmade plays a very important role in what she does it is not merely romantic or even retrograde, but rather the aesthetic byproduct of a position that shamelessly embraces direct experience over the mediated.
Sarah Rose in NOW
Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
28 October 2017 —
18 February 2018
NOW is a series of dynamic contemporary art exhibitions displayed across the ground floor at Modern One. Each exhibition in the series celebrates the unique role of artists in society, and introduces new work never before shown in Scotland. The second exhibition focuses on storytelling and includes major new sound installations by Turner Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz, as well as paintings, photographs, sculptures and moving image work produced by artists from around the globe, including New Zealand artist Sarah Rose who lives in Scotland.
NOW is a series of dynamic contemporary art exhibitions displayed across the ground floor at Modern One. Each exhibition in the series celebrates the unique role of artists in society, and introduces new work never before shown in Scotland. The second exhibition focuses on storytelling and includes major new sound installations by Turner Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz, as well as paintings, photographs, sculptures and moving image work produced by artists from around the globe, including New Zealand artist Sarah Rose who lives in Scotland.
Judy Millar: Swallowed in Space
Mark Muller Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
27 October —
23 December 2017
Blood red, jade green, and a bruising purple resonate against yellow and incandescent orange in Judy Millar’s new paintings. The colour palate is double-edged: reminding us of the moments when nature thrills us with sunsets, sunrises and deep blue lagoons but also recalling the colours of comic books and their depictions of outer-space adventure and future doom. Millar, a fan of popular science, describes the activity of painting as a form of space travel, during which she experiences space and time merging, or “swallowed in space”. These strangely spatial paintings exude an otherworldly luminosity, as if emitting light from a distant time and place. Millar represented New Zealand in La Biennale di Venezia in 2009. Her work is held in major institutional and private collections in Germany, Australia, China, The Netherlands, USA, Switzerland and New Zealand. Her work is currently exhibited in “Unpainting”, a large international overview of contemporary painting at The Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Blood red, jade green, and a bruising purple resonate against yellow and incandescent orange in Judy Millar’s new paintings. The colour palate is double-edged: reminding us of the moments when nature thrills us with sunsets, sunrises and deep blue lagoons but also recalling the colours of comic books and their depictions of outer-space adventure and future doom. Millar, a fan of popular science, describes the activity of painting as a form of space travel, during which she experiences space and time merging, or “swallowed in space”. These strangely spatial paintings exude an otherworldly luminosity, as if emitting light from a distant time and place. Millar represented New Zealand in La Biennale di Venezia in 2009. Her work is held in major institutional and private collections in Germany, Australia, China, The Netherlands, USA, Switzerland and New Zealand. Her work is currently exhibited in “Unpainting”, a large international overview of contemporary painting at The Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Ben Cauchi: As above, so below
Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
26 October —
25 November 2017
Ben Cauchi's first solo exhibition in the US features ambrotypes made through the mid-19th-century collodion process. A master of collodion wet-plate photography, Cauchi investigates tensions between appearance and subtleties perceived below the surface, shifting away from a black and white reality toward a stranger, greyer space between truth and untruth. Referencing the histories of painting and photography, Cauchi's ambrotypes depict sheets of rumpled paper or draped veils, transferring their detailed, three-dimensionality onto a thin, flat sheet of glass.
Ben Cauchi was the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2012, where he has lived and worked since.
Ben Cauchi's first solo exhibition in the US features ambrotypes made through the mid-19th-century collodion process. A master of collodion wet-plate photography, Cauchi investigates tensions between appearance and subtleties perceived below the surface, shifting away from a black and white reality toward a stranger, greyer space between truth and untruth. Referencing the histories of painting and photography, Cauchi's ambrotypes depict sheets of rumpled paper or draped veils, transferring their detailed, three-dimensionality onto a thin, flat sheet of glass.
Ben Cauchi was the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2012, where he has lived and worked since.
Alexa Wilson presents: Gasping for Air, aka Breathless
Dixon Place; Centre for Performance Research; and Mothership, New York
24 October —
27 October 2017
B.U.G.S. aka Bitches Under Gross Surveillance is dancer/performer Mayfield Brooks and NZ artist/dancer Alexa Wilson. Mayfield and Alexa met two years ago in Germany and haven’t physically seen each other since, but decided to engage in a remote yet intimate dance collaboration across three continents that interrogates the apparatus of surveillance and it’s affect on our bodies and breath. Gasping for Air aka Breathless (The Politics of Breathing) is a performance collaboration exploring a transnational conversation, exchange, improvisation and dance between the artists/borders around the breathless body in response to the current climate of surveillance and political overwhelm. Performance times are: at Dixon Place in Manhattan in the "Crossing Boundaries" programme, at 24th October (7.30pm) and at the Center for Performance Research also on 24th October (8pm). The full work will also be shown at Mothership in Greenpoint on the 27th October (7.30pm.)
B.U.G.S. aka Bitches Under Gross Surveillance is dancer/performer Mayfield Brooks and NZ artist/dancer Alexa Wilson. Mayfield and Alexa met two years ago in Germany and haven’t physically seen each other since, but decided to engage in a remote yet intimate dance collaboration across three continents that interrogates the apparatus of surveillance and it’s affect on our bodies and breath. Gasping for Air aka Breathless (The Politics of Breathing) is a performance collaboration exploring a transnational conversation, exchange, improvisation and dance between the artists/borders around the breathless body in response to the current climate of surveillance and political overwhelm. Performance times are: at Dixon Place in Manhattan in the "Crossing Boundaries" programme, at 24th October (7.30pm) and at the Center for Performance Research also on 24th October (8pm). The full work will also be shown at Mothership in Greenpoint on the 27th October (7.30pm.)
Luke Willis Thompson in Field Guide
Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
21 October 2017 —
25 February 2018
Remai Modern’s inaugural exhibition, Field Guide, introduces the museum’s program philosophy and direction. Works from the permanent collection are placed in dialogue with contemporary projects, commissioned pieces and immersive installations. Featuring leading artists from Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world, Field Guide rethinks the idea of “modern” from multiple cultural, geographic, historic and contemporary perspectives.
Curated by New Zealander Gregory Burke, Executive Director & CEO of Remai Modern, Field Guide includes a work by Luke Willis Thompson.
Read Contemporary HUM's essay Luke Willis Thompson: A Sister Image written by Frances Loeffler and an Interview with Greg Burke by Mandy Alves.
Remai Modern’s inaugural exhibition, Field Guide, introduces the museum’s program philosophy and direction. Works from the permanent collection are placed in dialogue with contemporary projects, commissioned pieces and immersive installations. Featuring leading artists from Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world, Field Guide rethinks the idea of “modern” from multiple cultural, geographic, historic and contemporary perspectives.
Curated by New Zealander Gregory Burke, Executive Director & CEO of Remai Modern, Field Guide includes a work by Luke Willis Thompson.
Read Contemporary HUM's essay Luke Willis Thompson: A Sister Image written by Frances Loeffler and an Interview with Greg Burke by Mandy Alves.
Kate Lepper in 'Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness'
Various venues, Various dates
20 October 2017 —
15 September 2018
Mac, Belfast : 20.10.2017 — 14.01.2018
DCA, Dundee: 10.03.2018 — 27.05.2018
Bury Art Museum and Sculpture, Bury: 23.06.2018 — 15.09.2018
Hayward Touring’s latest Curatorial Open exhibition explores the nature of visual awkwardness through the work of artists and architects. Shonky is a slang term meaning corrupt or bent, shoddy or unreliable, standing here for a particular type of visual aesthetic that is hand-made, deliberately clumsy and lo-fi, against the slick production values of much contemporary art.
The exhibition proposes a more celebratory definition of ‘shonkiness’ and showing how it can be used for critical purposes in the visual arts to explore issues including gender, identity, beauty and the body. Curated by John Walter, the show opens at the MAC in Belfast before embarking on a national tour to Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre.
Mac, Belfast : 20.10.2017 — 14.01.2018
DCA, Dundee: 10.03.2018 — 27.05.2018
Bury Art Museum and Sculpture, Bury: 23.06.2018 — 15.09.2018
Hayward Touring’s latest Curatorial Open exhibition explores the nature of visual awkwardness through the work of artists and architects. Shonky is a slang term meaning corrupt or bent, shoddy or unreliable, standing here for a particular type of visual aesthetic that is hand-made, deliberately clumsy and lo-fi, against the slick production values of much contemporary art.
The exhibition proposes a more celebratory definition of ‘shonkiness’ and showing how it can be used for critical purposes in the visual arts to explore issues including gender, identity, beauty and the body. Curated by John Walter, the show opens at the MAC in Belfast before embarking on a national tour to Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre.
Simon Denny and Simon Ingram in Open Codes
ZKM, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany.
20 October 2017 —
05 August 2018
Today we live in a globalized world that is controlled and created by digital codes. From communication to transportation (of people, goods, and messages), everything is guided by codes. Mathematics and mechanics have created a new tool-based world, erected by engineers, physicists, and programmers. This group exhibition, a collection of artworks and scientific works, gives the opportunity to understand this world through a code-curated exhibition. The works visualize and explain the complex dynamics of codes, and the way in which they are increasingly shaping the way we live and perceive the world. Artists include Simon Denny and Simon Ingram.
Today we live in a globalized world that is controlled and created by digital codes. From communication to transportation (of people, goods, and messages), everything is guided by codes. Mathematics and mechanics have created a new tool-based world, erected by engineers, physicists, and programmers. This group exhibition, a collection of artworks and scientific works, gives the opportunity to understand this world through a code-curated exhibition. The works visualize and explain the complex dynamics of codes, and the way in which they are increasingly shaping the way we live and perceive the world. Artists include Simon Denny and Simon Ingram.
FIAC 2017
Grand Palais, Paris, France
19 October —
22 October 2017
FIAC is one of the world's most largest contemporary art fairs. New Zealand born Jennifer Flay, who made her debut in the French art gallery sector and continued to live there, is the Director of FIAC since 2003. Although New Zealand galleries have never yet participated, New Zealand artists are often spotted at the Fair, or at parallel events, such as Paris Internationale.
Read Contemporary HUM's two part interview with FIAC Director Jennifer Flay: Auckland to Paris 1980-2003 & FIAC years 2003-2016.
FIAC is one of the world's most largest contemporary art fairs. New Zealand born Jennifer Flay, who made her debut in the French art gallery sector and continued to live there, is the Director of FIAC since 2003. Although New Zealand galleries have never yet participated, New Zealand artists are often spotted at the Fair, or at parallel events, such as Paris Internationale.
Read Contemporary HUM's two part interview with FIAC Director Jennifer Flay: Auckland to Paris 1980-2003 & FIAC years 2003-2016.
Rebecca Holden: Sand in the Apricot Jam
Museum of Rishon LeZion, Israel
19 October 2017 —
30 April 2018
Sand in the Apricot Jam is a visual arts project by New Zealand artist Rebecca Holden. The large scale paintings acknowledge the role of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles who fought in the Middle East campaigns of Sinai and Palestine, as well as Gallipoli, in WW1.
Rebecca’s grandfather John (Jack) Culleton was a trooper with the Auckland Mounted Rifles during this campaign. The exhibition has toured New Zealand since 2014 and will be exhibited at the museum of Rishon LeZion from October 2017 for 6 months.
Sand in the Apricot Jam is a visual arts project by New Zealand artist Rebecca Holden. The large scale paintings acknowledge the role of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles who fought in the Middle East campaigns of Sinai and Palestine, as well as Gallipoli, in WW1.
Rebecca’s grandfather John (Jack) Culleton was a trooper with the Auckland Mounted Rifles during this campaign. The exhibition has toured New Zealand since 2014 and will be exhibited at the museum of Rishon LeZion from October 2017 for 6 months.
Oscar Enberg, Zac Langdon-Pole: winners ARS VIVA 2018
Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany
07 October —
19 November 2017
Since 1953 the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries awards the annual ARS VIVA prize to young artists living in Germany whose works are distinguished by their pioneering potential. Winners in 2018 included two New Zealand artists living in Germany; Oscar Enberg and Zac Langdon-Pole. This year’s jury was chaired by Ulrich Sauerwein and consisted of members of the Kulturkreis Fine Arts Committee, and directors and curators Chris Fitzpatrick (Kunstverein München), Martin Germann (S.M.A.K., Ghent), Zita Cobb (Foto Island Arts / Shorefast Foundation), Nicolaus Schafhausen (Kunsthalle Wien / Shorefast Foundation), and Krist Gruijthuijsen (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin) as expert advisors. In 2018, the exhibition will tour to S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium, where it will be attenuated appropriately. The artists are additionally awarded with individual prize money, a residency at Fogo Island Arts (Canada), and a bilingual catalogue centred on their work, with essays by Simon Baier, Gürsoy Doğtaş, Gregory Kan, Laura McLean Ferris, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Since 1953 the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries awards the annual ARS VIVA prize to young artists living in Germany whose works are distinguished by their pioneering potential. Winners in 2018 included two New Zealand artists living in Germany; Oscar Enberg and Zac Langdon-Pole. This year’s jury was chaired by Ulrich Sauerwein and consisted of members of the Kulturkreis Fine Arts Committee, and directors and curators Chris Fitzpatrick (Kunstverein München), Martin Germann (S.M.A.K., Ghent), Zita Cobb (Foto Island Arts / Shorefast Foundation), Nicolaus Schafhausen (Kunsthalle Wien / Shorefast Foundation), and Krist Gruijthuijsen (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin) as expert advisors. In 2018, the exhibition will tour to S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium, where it will be attenuated appropriately. The artists are additionally awarded with individual prize money, a residency at Fogo Island Arts (Canada), and a bilingual catalogue centred on their work, with essays by Simon Baier, Gürsoy Doğtaş, Gregory Kan, Laura McLean Ferris, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Katrina Beekhuis in residency at Gasworks
Gasworks, London, U.K.
01 October —
31 December 2017
During her residency at Gasworks, Auckland based artist Katrina Beekhuis will develop a series of floor-based works using her previous work Lino floor mat (Agnes Martin) (2016) as a point of departure. She will research historical works which cross ontological boundaries, acting as both everyday thing and art work. Through this research, she will attempt to understand how something thin, abstract and hard to pin down with language, can effectively articulate a social or political gesture; how this doubt, doubling-back or non-specificity may offer something closer to lived experience, and be more robust, than something unequivocal and distinct.
During her residency at Gasworks, Auckland based artist Katrina Beekhuis will develop a series of floor-based works using her previous work Lino floor mat (Agnes Martin) (2016) as a point of departure. She will research historical works which cross ontological boundaries, acting as both everyday thing and art work. Through this research, she will attempt to understand how something thin, abstract and hard to pin down with language, can effectively articulate a social or political gesture; how this doubt, doubling-back or non-specificity may offer something closer to lived experience, and be more robust, than something unequivocal and distinct.
Ralph Hotere, Godwit Kuaka in F.R. David
Recognition', F.R. David, Autumn 2017; Published by uh books with KW Institute for Contemporary Art
22 September —
21 December 2017
Each issue of F.R. David features a wide array of artists and writers and a unique theme. This fourteenth issue, co-edited by Will Holder and Scott Rogers, features Godwit Kuaka, Ralph Hotere's English translation of a Muriwhenua chant about this legendary shore bird, alongside the original Māori version. The story of the Godwits' annual return to New Zealand inspired Hotere to create several works including The Flight of the Godwit (1977) for Auckland Airport's International Arrivals Hall. Alongside several species of birds, this issue also features writing by Reza Negarestani, Ursula K. Le Guin, Donna Haraway, Zoe Todd, Ayesha Siddiqi Aurelia Armstrong, Kosen Ohtsubo, Ian White, Eileen Myles, Marcel Broodthaers, Witold Gombrowicz, Ian McCammon, Noam Chomsky, Gilles Deleuze, and more.
Each issue of F.R. David features a wide array of artists and writers and a unique theme. This fourteenth issue, co-edited by Will Holder and Scott Rogers, features Godwit Kuaka, Ralph Hotere's English translation of a Muriwhenua chant about this legendary shore bird, alongside the original Māori version. The story of the Godwits' annual return to New Zealand inspired Hotere to create several works including The Flight of the Godwit (1977) for Auckland Airport's International Arrivals Hall. Alongside several species of birds, this issue also features writing by Reza Negarestani, Ursula K. Le Guin, Donna Haraway, Zoe Todd, Ayesha Siddiqi Aurelia Armstrong, Kosen Ohtsubo, Ian White, Eileen Myles, Marcel Broodthaers, Witold Gombrowicz, Ian McCammon, Noam Chomsky, Gilles Deleuze, and more.
Matthew Galloway in Provincia 53. Arte, territorio y descolonización del Sáhara
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Leon, Spain
16 September 2017 —
04 February 2018
Province 53. Art, territory and decolonisation of the Sahara is an exhibition on the so-called Western Sahara that reflects on its conflict from an aesthetic, educational and political sense of the concept of territory.
Province 53 is the first exhibition held in a Spanish museum of visual arts to look at contemporary culture of Western Sahara. Based on this leitmotiv, the exhibition proposes a subjective narrative for its "colonial" past and "global" present, which aims to critique the mechanisms of control, power and repression that have taken place in this geographical area since the end of the 19th century to the present time.
Province 53. Art, territory and decolonisation of the Sahara is an exhibition on the so-called Western Sahara that reflects on its conflict from an aesthetic, educational and political sense of the concept of territory.
Province 53 is the first exhibition held in a Spanish museum of visual arts to look at contemporary culture of Western Sahara. Based on this leitmotiv, the exhibition proposes a subjective narrative for its "colonial" past and "global" present, which aims to critique the mechanisms of control, power and repression that have taken place in this geographical area since the end of the 19th century to the present time.
The Articulated Cage: without appeal at Venice
Venice, Italy
13 September —
17 September 2017
without appeal, co-founded by artist and writer Will Gresson, is an artist collective currently based in London, UK. Between September 13-17 this year they will be launching WA003: The Articulated Cage, a free A6 zine/poster during the closing months of the 57th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Working in collaboration with fashion label Judas Companion the zine launch will investigate the dynamics of the Biennale and the place smaller independent projects and institutions might have within the wider art world establishment. The project is part 3 in an ongoing four-part work in progress, and is unaffiliated with the official program of the Biennale.
without appeal, co-founded by artist and writer Will Gresson, is an artist collective currently based in London, UK. Between September 13-17 this year they will be launching WA003: The Articulated Cage, a free A6 zine/poster during the closing months of the 57th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Working in collaboration with fashion label Judas Companion the zine launch will investigate the dynamics of the Biennale and the place smaller independent projects and institutions might have within the wider art world establishment. The project is part 3 in an ongoing four-part work in progress, and is unaffiliated with the official program of the Biennale.
Richard Frater's project for compound
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
13 September —
17 September 2017
Visitors enter an empty gallery space with an open window offering a view onto the rooftop of the exhibition hall. On top of the roof, Berlin based artist Richard Frater has constructed a garden, which is covered with a range of wild flowers, succulents, and endangered local plants. Frater works together with a gardener, wildlife photographer and an experimental composer to include their means of production. These collaborations expand upon the ecology of the visit as the garden grows over the duration of the exhibition. Compound is a series of new productions by artists that have been invited by Willem de Rooij. These commissions result in different forms of presentation spanning the time period of three months, varying from performances, and screenings to short-term exhibitions.
Visitors enter an empty gallery space with an open window offering a view onto the rooftop of the exhibition hall. On top of the roof, Berlin based artist Richard Frater has constructed a garden, which is covered with a range of wild flowers, succulents, and endangered local plants. Frater works together with a gardener, wildlife photographer and an experimental composer to include their means of production. These collaborations expand upon the ecology of the visit as the garden grows over the duration of the exhibition. Compound is a series of new productions by artists that have been invited by Willem de Rooij. These commissions result in different forms of presentation spanning the time period of three months, varying from performances, and screenings to short-term exhibitions.
Maddie Leach in 'WheredoIendandyoubegin – On Secularity'
Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden
09 September —
19 November 2017
Mapping and interpreting the historical specificity of a particular site, Maddie Leach’s project for the Göteborg International Biennial has concentrated on places in Gothenburg and the town of Strömstad, delving into the phenomenon of black metal subculture in Sweden and the wider Nordic region. In particular, Leach has looked at the story of renowned band Dissection who became recognised as black metal pioneers in the 1990s. On the evening of 22 July 1997, the band’s lead singer Jon Nödtveidt together with his friend Vlad murdered Josef Ben Meddour, a homosexual and Algerian national, in Keillers Park at Ramberget in Gothenburg. Meddour was found dead near a stone water tower, having been shot with a gun through the heart and the head. Described as a homophobic hate crime, both men eventually confessed and were imprisoned for the murder. Leach observed a roughly drawn inverted pentagram, marking the water tower site, on a public map depicting key features in the park. As a response to this coded gesture, the artist proposed to engrave a small pentagram on the water tower’s entrance. The pentagram, a symbol common to different religions and folklore is, in the minds of many, inextricably linked to satanic aesthetics and the occult. However here the pentagram was to be configured the ‘opposite’ way round, in which it is associated with notions of protection, banishing, harmony and justice. Intended as a quiet counter-action to mark 20 years since Meddour’s murder, the proposal was declined by Göteborgs Stad the same week an inverted pentagram and the words ‘Död åt Josef. Hell Jon & Vlad’ (Death to Josef. Hell/Hail Jon & Vlad) were graffitied on the water tower.
Mapping and interpreting the historical specificity of a particular site, Maddie Leach’s project for the Göteborg International Biennial has concentrated on places in Gothenburg and the town of Strömstad, delving into the phenomenon of black metal subculture in Sweden and the wider Nordic region. In particular, Leach has looked at the story of renowned band Dissection who became recognised as black metal pioneers in the 1990s. On the evening of 22 July 1997, the band’s lead singer Jon Nödtveidt together with his friend Vlad murdered Josef Ben Meddour, a homosexual and Algerian national, in Keillers Park at Ramberget in Gothenburg. Meddour was found dead near a stone water tower, having been shot with a gun through the heart and the head. Described as a homophobic hate crime, both men eventually confessed and were imprisoned for the murder. Leach observed a roughly drawn inverted pentagram, marking the water tower site, on a public map depicting key features in the park. As a response to this coded gesture, the artist proposed to engrave a small pentagram on the water tower’s entrance. The pentagram, a symbol common to different religions and folklore is, in the minds of many, inextricably linked to satanic aesthetics and the occult. However here the pentagram was to be configured the ‘opposite’ way round, in which it is associated with notions of protection, banishing, harmony and justice. Intended as a quiet counter-action to mark 20 years since Meddour’s murder, the proposal was declined by Göteborgs Stad the same week an inverted pentagram and the words ‘Död åt Josef. Hell Jon & Vlad’ (Death to Josef. Hell/Hail Jon & Vlad) were graffitied on the water tower.
Tahi Moore: Kim Wilde’s Heart of Darkness
Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, U.K.
26 August —
11 November 2017
‘Kim Wilde’s Heart of Darkness’ is the first UK exhibition of New Zealand-based artist Tahi Moore. The exhibition includes over fifteen new video works which have been created through a partnership with the Royal Over-Seas League, an organisation which champions international collaboration, and Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland, where Moore completed a four week residency in late 2016. Moore's title refers to Kim Wilde’s 1981 song ‘Cambodia’ – both a heart breaking story of an Air Force wife who loses her husband in the Vietnam War and typical synthy 80s Top of the Pops tune.
Moore’s video works retain a formal and seductive beauty. Images of mountains, domestic interiors of holiday homes, lights of synthesizers or the lapping of the sea carry a resonance and act like visual triggers. The viewer is invited to piece clues together and work out the puzzle to find some kind of meaning with images full of suggested connections, necessary false starts and potential resolutions.
‘Kim Wilde’s Heart of Darkness’ is the first UK exhibition of New Zealand-based artist Tahi Moore. The exhibition includes over fifteen new video works which have been created through a partnership with the Royal Over-Seas League, an organisation which champions international collaboration, and Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland, where Moore completed a four week residency in late 2016. Moore's title refers to Kim Wilde’s 1981 song ‘Cambodia’ – both a heart breaking story of an Air Force wife who loses her husband in the Vietnam War and typical synthy 80s Top of the Pops tune.
Moore’s video works retain a formal and seductive beauty. Images of mountains, domestic interiors of holiday homes, lights of synthesizers or the lapping of the sea carry a resonance and act like visual triggers. The viewer is invited to piece clues together and work out the puzzle to find some kind of meaning with images full of suggested connections, necessary false starts and potential resolutions.
Laura McMillan: Wandering Mind
Playground, London, U.K.
19 August —
20 August 2017
Laura McMillan is an artist from Auckland now residing in London. Her practice explores and exposes the absurdities surrounding tradition and nostalgia. Drawing from obsolete textbooks to obscure garden magazines, McMillan cuts, splices and recontextualises new worlds out of the past and present. By reliving these past events and analysing how society once lived, played and how we interacted with our surroundings, she produces alternate possibilities of the world and all that could have been. Come join Laura at Playground this August, with an expose of art, object and collage to help your mind wander away from normality.
Laura McMillan is an artist from Auckland now residing in London. Her practice explores and exposes the absurdities surrounding tradition and nostalgia. Drawing from obsolete textbooks to obscure garden magazines, McMillan cuts, splices and recontextualises new worlds out of the past and present. By reliving these past events and analysing how society once lived, played and how we interacted with our surroundings, she produces alternate possibilities of the world and all that could have been. Come join Laura at Playground this August, with an expose of art, object and collage to help your mind wander away from normality.
Fiona Connor: Color Census
1301PE Gallery, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
12 August —
26 August 2017
For her third exhibition at 1301PE, Fiona Connor exhibits two new bodies of work: Color Census, and Broadsheets, 2017. Color Census is a series of 10 portraits of homes on Warner Drive in the historic neighborhood called Carthay Circle in Los Angeles. Connor knocked on the residence's door and asked if she could come in to document the home's interior paint colors. If the response was yes, Connor would then photograph the house in black and white from the street and then create color samples of the interior walls which are displayed as a grid.
Connor's work Broadsheets are silkscreened reproductions of articles from The News American reviewing sculptor Anne Truitt's exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1975. Truitt writes in a collection of diary entries that she found the articles to be baffling and discouraging. The articles include reproductions of Truitt's Arundel series surrounded by art criticism and listings of the day.
For her third exhibition at 1301PE, Fiona Connor exhibits two new bodies of work: Color Census, and Broadsheets, 2017. Color Census is a series of 10 portraits of homes on Warner Drive in the historic neighborhood called Carthay Circle in Los Angeles. Connor knocked on the residence's door and asked if she could come in to document the home's interior paint colors. If the response was yes, Connor would then photograph the house in black and white from the street and then create color samples of the interior walls which are displayed as a grid.
Connor's work Broadsheets are silkscreened reproductions of articles from The News American reviewing sculptor Anne Truitt's exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1975. Truitt writes in a collection of diary entries that she found the articles to be baffling and discouraging. The articles include reproductions of Truitt's Arundel series surrounded by art criticism and listings of the day.
Shannon Te Ao: With the sun aglow, I have my pensive moods
Gladstone Court, Edinburgh Art Festival, Scotland
27 July —
27 August 2017
Te Ao’s powerfully affecting video installations, sound works and live performances often find their starting point in existing literary material (particularly Māori lyrical sources). His new multimedia installation, co-commissioned with Te Tuhi, explores the physical and emotional depths of love, grief, sickness and healing. Centred around video footage shot throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, the work explores a poetic assemblage of tenuously related content including a 1840s waiata, a dance scene that references a 1970s Charles Burnett film, a hemp farm, and a 1960s Clyde Otis song famously sung by Dinah Washington.
Te Ao’s powerfully affecting video installations, sound works and live performances often find their starting point in existing literary material (particularly Māori lyrical sources). His new multimedia installation, co-commissioned with Te Tuhi, explores the physical and emotional depths of love, grief, sickness and healing. Centred around video footage shot throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, the work explores a poetic assemblage of tenuously related content including a 1840s waiata, a dance scene that references a 1970s Charles Burnett film, a hemp farm, and a 1960s Clyde Otis song famously sung by Dinah Washington.