Interviews

Writing

Luke Willis Thompson in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

07.05.2025

In February 2025, Contemporary HUM spoke with Luke Willis Thompson from Sharjah Biennial 16 about his commissioned work Whakamoeamoeā. Set on Waitangi Day in 2040 as a public broadcast, the film imagines constitutional transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand, giving form to an Indigenous-focused dream of the future.

Writing

Te Matahiapo Collective in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

07.05.2025

On the occasion of Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, Contemporary HUM speaks with Kura Puke, Inahaa Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Stuart Foster and Mike Bridgman of the research initiative Te Matahiapo Collective. They discuss their multi-media installation work, Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū - Ī Ō Ē Ā Ū: Ko Pari Haruru (2025), and its various resonances in the Biennial and Sharjah at large as an embodied exploration of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems).

Writing

Kate Newby in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

09.04.2025

Contemporary HUM speaks to Aotearoa-born, Texas-based artist Kate Newby about Cold Water (2025), her new commission for Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. Newby discusses her process of responding to the sea-side site in Sharjah, and the influence of its elemental characteristics—light and space; sun, water and desert—on the work.

Writing

Albert L. Refiti in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

09.04.2025

Architectural theorist and academic Albert L. Refiti speaks to Contemporary HUM from Sharjah Biennial 16, where he presents a selection of his drawn “cosmograms.” He discusses the rich theoretical framework behind his work, including his research into the Sāmoan concept of vā, and the generative complexities of exhibiting in Sharjah.

Project

Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

In February 2025, Contemporary HUM was on the ground during the opening week of Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, co-curated by Aotearoa curator Megan Tamati-Quennell with Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz.

Sharjah Biennial 16 convenes under the title “to carry”, a multivocal and open-ended proposition that connects stories and traditions across generations and cultures. The five co-curators of Sharjah Biennial 16 present their projects both individually and collectively, gathering under the rubric of a single proposition: What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors and political formations with you?

Megan Tamati-Quennell’s project assembles a significant number of artists and practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand: Albert L. Refiti, Ana Iti, Fiona Pardington, Kate Newby, Mara TK, Saffronn Te Ratana, Luke Willis Thompson, Michael Parekōwhai and Te Matahiapo Collective, whose projects collectively speak to themes of place, space and whakapapa (genealogy).

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 8

By Contemporary HUM

17.08.2024

Contemporary HUM speaks with Aotearoa New Zealand artist Sandy Adsett (Ngāti Pahauwera), a pioneer in the customary artform of kōwhaiwhai and an active figure in the emergence and presentation of contemporary Māori art on the national and international scenes. He discusses being featured in the 60th International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, his experience as a teacher, and the question of the uses and future of Māori representation at events such as the Biennale.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 7

By Contemporary HUM

10.08.2024

Robert Jahnke (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairo o Ngāti Porou) speaks to Contemporary HUM about his work Te Wepu MMXXIII, which is featured in the 7th edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Jahnke discusses the influence of Te Wepu, the battle flag of the 19th-century Māori prophet Te Kooti, and how the work highlights a formal whakapapa (genealogy) between Te Kooti, who was not only a religious visionary but an artistic innovator in his own right, and contemporary references to the flag, including by the late sculptor and painter Paratene Matchitt.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 6

By Contemporary HUM

03.08.2024

On the occasion of an historic edition of the Venice Biennale for Aotearoa New Zealand, Contemporary HUM speaks with Mataaho Collective, who were awarded one of the top prizes at the Biennale, the Golden Lion, for their work Takapau. Mataaho Collective discuss the logistics of transforming Takapau for the Biennale, as well as working within a continuum of contemporary Māori art practice that also situates them alongside the intergenerational contingent of Māori artists presenting at this year’s Biennale. HUM also speaks with artist, writer and researcher Rychèl Thérin.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 5

By Contemporary HUM

27.07.2024

Contemporary HUM speaks to esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham, a pioneering figure in contemporary Māori art who is part of a generation that forged a new path in ngā toi Māori in post-war Aotearoa. Reflecting on his practice of over 70 years, Graham discusses the influence of his teaching and the importance of friends and family, as well as the experience of exhibiting alongside his son, Brett Graham, at the Venice Biennale.

Project

Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice

Podcast series

Despite there being no national pavilion for Aotearoa New Zealand this year, the 60th Venice Biennale is an historic edition for Aotearoa artists. Not only are there an unprecedented number of artists from Aotearoa featured in Venice – both within the International Exhibition of the Biennale and in concurrent events taking place across the city – but it also features the most Māori artists to be included.

In Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice, Contemporary HUM speaks with the artists featured in the 60th Venice Biennale and parallel events Personal Structures and Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania as they reflect on presenting in Venice during an historic year for Aotearoa art, Ngā toi Māori and Indigenous art globally.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 4

By Contemporary HUM

13.07.2024

Architect, artist and mother Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta speaks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation The Body of Wainuiātea, which is featured alongside work by Latai Taumoepeau in Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania, an exhibition curated by Taloi Havini at TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space in Venice. She discusses the influence of the Māori pūrākau (mythological tradition) of the atua (deity) Wainuiātea, the need to re-establish a sacred relationship to the ocean and the conversations that guided the creation of the work, including with Havini and Taumoepeau.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 3

By Contemporary HUM

06.07.2024

Contemporary HUM interviews artist Caitlin Devoy about BODYOBJECTS, her presentation in the 2024 edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Speaking to HUM in April 2024, Devoy discusses using humour as a feminist strategy to challenge the power relations encoded in gallery spaces, resulting in works that refuse disembodied objectivity in favour of tactility, subjectivity and intuition.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 2

By Contemporary HUM

29.06.2024

Contemporary HUM interviews Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) about Wastelands (2024), his work in Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Graham discusses Wastelands as a commentary on extractive attitudes to land, the logistics of exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and what it’s like to be included alongside an intergenerational selection of Māori artists, including his father, Fred Graham.

Writing

Crossing Currents: Episode 1

By Contemporary HUM

22.06.2024

Aotearoa New Zealand artist Areez Katki speaks to HUM about The Rhapsode’s Tools Will Build the Rhapsode’s House, his presentation in the 7th edition of Personal Structures. Katki discusses the processes and politics of exhibiting in Personal Structures and the two series he produced for the exhibition, which take migrant and queer positionalities as points from which to restore notions of pedagogy and learning from patriarchal, religious dictates to an affectual, instinctual realm of care.

Writing

HUM live from the 2024 Venice Biennale

16.04.2024

From 16–21 April 2024, Contemporary HUM will publish live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Click through for coverage of the Aotearoa New Zealand artists presenting work in the curated section of the Biennale, as well as in other events held off-site.

Writing

“To see us on our best day.”

By Dávvet Bruun-Solbaak

15.12.2023

Offering a glimpse at the wide range of emotions and encounters that Aotearoa-based artist Maungarongo Te Kawa and Northern Sámi activist Dávvet Bruun-Solbaak share in their multifaceted experiences at different edges of the globe, this conversation takes Te Kawa’s recent residency and touring exhibition in Norway and Sámi territories as a departure point.

Writing

A Film Glossary

By José B. Segebre

29.11.2023

After a conversation with Frankfurt-based, Waipukurau-born artist Juliet Carpenter, José B. Segebre shaped the ideas discussed into this experimental glossary. The entries highlight the ways in which Carpenter’s practice is informed by film and theatre history, and is deeply engaged in the friction of contemporary politics and technologies.

Writing

Mataaho Collective at the Dhaka Art Summit

By Pauline Autet

21.04.2020

We finish our first series focusing on the Asia region with Contemporary HUM Editor Pauline Autet interviewing Mataaho Collective on their participation in the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh in February 2020, where they partook in panel discussions and practised a type of waiata (song) called a pātere.

Writing

An interview with Yuki Kihara

By Contemporary HUM

24.05.2022

In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, Contemporary HUM sat down with the artist representing Aotearoa, Yuki Kihara, to discuss her exhibition Paradise Camp, and what it means to bring a Pasifika, Fa'afafine voice to the international audience of this major event.

Writing

An interview with the curators of 'Paradise Camp'

By Contemporary HUM, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Natalie King

24.05.2022

In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, Contemporary HUM sat down with the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion’s Curator, Natalie King, and Assistant Pasifika Curator Ioana-Gordon Smith, to talk about bringing Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp to Venice.

Writing

Caretaker to Caretaker

By Bopha Chhay, Paula Booker

18.01.2022

In Part One of this interview, Vancouver-based Aotearoa curators Paula Booker and Bopha Chhay talk about Chhay’s work as director of non-profit artist-run initiative Artspeak, the meaning of care in a curating role, the relationship between writing and art, and the place of artist-run initiatives in Canada and Aotearoa.

Writing

“Don’t Learn Anything More!”

By Connie Brown

26.10.2021

Writer Connie Brown pays a visit to Virginia Leonard’s studio, encountering the artist’s “fugly” ceramics and talking with her about recent and upcoming international exhibitions, her process into ceramic-making and the resistance her work offers to traditional notions of wellness, pain and the body. 

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.

Writing

Always in Transit

By Aaron Lister

18.09.2019

A conversation with Yona Lee about her new site-specific installation, In Transit (Highway) (2019), presented at the 15th Lyon Biennale, her training as a cellist, and the development of this ongoing project. With an introduction from Daria de Beauvais, Senior Curator at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and Co-Curator of this year's Biennale.

Writing

Screaming Strawbears and other Strange Engagements

By Tessa Laird

05.07.2019

From Morris dancing to costume making, Berlin-based artist Matthew Cowan and arts writer Tessa Laird discuss Cowan's interest in folklore, the function of tradition in the modern world and the influence of surrealism on his practice. Cowan's exhibition The Scream of the Strawbear opens at Kunsthalle Giessen in Germany on 7 September 2019.

Writing

An interview with Dane Mitchell

By Contemporary HUM

24.06.2019

Contemporary HUM's editorial team sat down with artist Dane Mitchell to discuss his work for the New Zealand Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Post hoc. The work, both ambitious in scale and subject, has sparked discussions on global climate change and meditations on what has truly disappeared from the world. 

Writing

Feminist Hieroglyphics

By Louise Lever

25.06.2018

A conversation with London-based artist Sriwhana Spong about Spong's practice and in particular her recent video work A hook but no fish, 2017, originally presented at the Pump House Gallery in London, which speculates upon a secret language invented by a mystic 12th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen.

Writing

An interview with Bruce Barber

By Contemporary HUM

22.09.2017

As part of Contemporary HUM's series of interviews with New Zealand artists exhibiting during the 57th Venice Biennale, we talk with Bruce Barber about his work Party without Party (2017), included in the exhibition Personal Structures: Open Borders at the Palazzo Bembo.

Writing

A New Commonwealth Internationalism

By Aaron Lister, Damian Skinner

01.03.2017

Writer and curator Aaron Lister talks to art historian Damien Skinner about the 'New Commonwealth Internationalism', a moment of post-WWII postcolonial internationalism in the British art scene, and its influence on British and New Zealand art history.

Writing

Caretaker to Caretaker

By Bopha Chhay, Paula Booker

18.01.2022

In Part Two of this interview, Vancouver-based Aotearoa curators Paula Booker and Bopha Chhay talk about Chhay’s work as director of non-profit artist-run initiative Artspeak, the challenges of maintaining a space during COVID-19, what decolonisation in art institutions can be like and working on unceded territory, and curating recent projects around the relationship between art and writing.