Conversations

Writing

Taiwan-New Zealand Dialogue

By Catherine George, Catherine Lee, Isis Mingli Lee, Ron Hanson, Wan-Jung Wei

22.12.2020

A panel discussion exploring new ways of making art and connecting with audiences amid Covid-19 in New Zealand and Taiwan. Held on October 24 2020 and organised by the Taiwan Cultural Policy Research Association, as part of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts (TTTIFA).

Project

Taiwan-New Zealand Dialogue on Cultural Exchange Policies amid Covid-19

Panel discussion in Taipei

Contemporary HUM is a proud partner of the Taiwan-New Zealand Dialogue on Cultural Exchange Policies amid Covid-19 panel discussion, organised by the Taiwan Cultural Policy Research Association. Held in the context of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts (TTTIFA) in Taipei, this panel discussion seeks to unpack the impact of Covid-19 on arts practitioners and the need for cultural exchange and dialogue. 

Writing

Everything Stops for the Baby

By Chloe Lane, Peter Gouge

23.09.2020

In this correspondence, writer Chloe Lane and artist Peter Gouge discuss the origins of Gouge’s MFA final exhibition at the University of Florida, the functionality of objects, the intersection of parenthood and practice, and the upcoming exhibition at Melanie Roger Gallery in Auckland where the documentation of Gouge's project will be displayed.

Writing

Behind the scenes of Post hoc in Venice

By Amber Baldock, Chris Sharp, Hope Wilson, Jude Chambers, Zara Stanhope

22.07.2019

What does it take to represent New Zealand at the Venice Biennale? How are five-metre tall, 500kg sculptures installed and secured? How do you vie for an audience’s attention on an island full of exhibitions and artworks? HUM interviews the team behind Post hoc, at the New Zealand Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Writing

Design solves problems and art creates problems

By Eleanor Woodhouse

23.04.2019

A closer look at Biljana Popovic's 12-month Visual Arts Residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, and how her previous work as a commercial designer informs her current visual arts practice by integrating elements of interior design and architecture. 

Writing

Spin Slowly, Fighting Gravity

By Samuel Walsh

04.02.2019

Arts facilitator and producer Samuel Walsh reflects on his residency at Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon, Portugal, where he was able to develop ideas for his own artist-run space, Strange Haven, in Tāmaki Makaurau. Although thousands of miles apart, Walsh and the facilitators of Zaratan discovered their shared joys and struggles of running an art space, and the importance of community in their practice.

Writing

Test Run

By Jennifer Thatcher

13.12.2018

We hear from three artists who, over the last three years, have completed, or are completing, a three-month residency at London art centre Gasworks. Sriwhana Spong in 2016, Katrina Beekhuis in 2017, and Hikalu Clarke, who is half-way through his, all share their experiences and thoughts on this important opportunity.

Project

Whose Oceania?

Panel discussion in London

Whose Oceania? is Contemporary HUM’s second public panel discussion, held on 29 September 2018 to coincide with the opening of the Oceania exhibition, on at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

This exhibition is a major international event for Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, and we have decided to take the opportunity to bring together several professionals from different backgrounds and practices in Māori and Pacific art, as well as colonial studies, to offer informed and critical responses to the show.

Writing

999, Alchemist Trauma Centre / Power Centre

By Jorge De Hoyos

11.07.2018

Berlin-based Jorge de Hoyos first experienced Alexa Wilson's current project 999: Alchemist Trauma Centre / Power Centre when both artists were auditioning for a Masters in Solo Dance Authorship in Berlin. In this part-essay, part-interview, they discuss the work, which is due to be performed in London, Berlin, India and NZ later this year, and exchange their views on feminism and challenging binary perceptions. 

Writing

An interview with Martin Basher

By André Hemer

16.03.2018

A conversation between two offshore New Zealand artists: Vienna-based André Hemer and New York-based Martin Basher. Their chat touches on producing art in Trump-era US, display-based practice, Basher’s doctorate, and living in NYC as a New Zealander.

Writing

Ka Mua, Ka Muri

By Louise Garrett

28.02.2018

Nathan Pohio’s Raise the anchor, unfurl the sails, set course to the centre of an ever setting sun! was one of three projects by artists from Aotearoa New Zealand presented at documenta 14. Louise Garrett explores Pohio’s presentation in Kassel and invites the artist himself to reflect on his participation and to discuss the work he presented in Athens, documenta’s parallel location in 2017.

Writing

Judy Millar: The Sinew of Space

By Jodie Dalgleish

12.02.2018

Jodie Dalgleish considers Judy Millar's exhibition Swallowed in Space at Galerie Mark Müller in Zurich (2017), reflecting on the way Millar's affective paintings can activate space to create a 'bodily-felt' experience and extensively draws on a dialogue between the writer and the artist evaluating 'what painting does to us'.

Writing

Learning from Athens (There and Elsewhere)

By Laura Preston, Wystan Curnow

18.12.2017

For over a year, Laura Preston was based in Athens to work as associate editor of documenta 14 publications, including South as a State of Mind released in four issues. HUM invited the art writer and editor to reflect on this experience, who in turn, extended the invitation to fellow New Zealander and distinguished art critic, curator and poet Wystan Curnow. What results is a two-part correspondence in which the pair reflect on their imagined and lived experiences of Europe coming from their other south.

Project

Islands on Sale

Panel discussion in London

A panel discussion organised by Contemporary HUM on globalisation, national identity and the politics of representation at New Zealand Studies Network conference ISLANDS ON SALE, Regent's University London, 1 July 2017. 

Writing

Conversations from Jan van Eyck Academy

By Murdoch Stephens, Paoletta Holst, Raewyn Martyn

02.04.2017

A conversation between Aotearoa New Zealand artist Raewyn Martyn, Dutch artist Paoletta Holst, and writer and publisher Murdoch Stephens, during their residencies at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, Netherlands, reflecting on the relationship between art, activism and how these processes and practices relate to very real, life-and-death, refugee and immigration policies.

Writing

A Material Direction

By Jodie Dalgleish

08.12.2016

Jodie Dalgleish talks to New Zealand/German artist André Hemer about his recent series A Hot Mess, his PhD practice and his experience as an ex-pat New Zealander.

Writing

Amidst and Beyond

By Alice Connew, Virginia Woods-Jack

10.03.2021

To celebrate the February 2021 release of Dwelling in the Margins: Art Publishing in Aotearoa, a new publication by GLORIA Books, HUM is pleased to republish this extract in which two photographers speak about their artistic and publishing practices, and about their work highlighting women in photography through collaborative projects and platforms that foster debate, visibility and community.