On the ground

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

Fiona Pardington in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

23.04.2025

Aotearoa artist and representative for Aotearoa New Zealand at the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale (2026) Fiona Pardington talks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation of works from “Āhua: A beautiful hesitation” (2010) at Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. In the conversation, she discusses the power of ancestral imagery beyond their capture by colonial pseudoscience, while also offering some early insights into her project for Venice.

Writing

Ana Iti in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

23.04.2025

In conversation with Contemporary HUM, Ana Iti reflects on her participation in Sharjah Biennial 16, following her win of the Walters Prize in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2024. She discusses what it’s been like taking the winning artwork to Sharjah and presenting it alongside earlier works, as well as the significance of taking part in her first major international presentation.

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 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.

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

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

documenta fifteen or lumbung one?

By Bruce E. Phillips

12.08.2022

For documenta fifteen, the arts collective FAFSWAG were invited to participate as members of the lumbung process established by this year’s curatorial collective ruangrupa. In the absence of the trophy artist phenomenon so entrenched within mega-exhibitions, Bruce E. Phillips responds to the work of different participating collectives exhibiting in Kassel and discusses how introducing a non-European exhibition-making concept into the heart of arguably Europe’s most revered art event was bound to confound those unwilling to consider a differing perspective.

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

HUM live from the 2022 Venice Biennale

By Contemporary HUM

24.04.2022

From 20—24 April 2022, Contemporary HUM brings you live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of The Milk of Dreams, The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, including Yuki Kihara's Paradise Camp for the New Zealand Pavilion.

Writing

HUM travels to Berlin

By Contemporary HUM

05.10.2021

From 01 - 04 October 2021, the HUM team was in Berlin to host our third panel discussion On Civicness. While there, we took the opportunity to catch up with several New Zealand artists - Sam Rountree Williams, Joshua Rutter, Matthew Cowan, and Ben Cauchi - and learn about their current projects.

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

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.

Project

HUM live from the Venice Biennale

Updates from the vernissage

Since 2017, the Contemporary HUM team has attended every vernissage of La Biennale di Venezia in Italy. Each time, we bring you live coverage during the opening week, not only from the official New Zealand pavilion, but also from other events featuring artists from Aotearoa. In addition to posting daily blog entries, videos and images, we also publish exclusive interviews with some of the New Zealand artists and arts practitioners involved in putting together this major international event. 

Project

HUM travels to Berlin

Studio visits

From 01 - 04 October 2021, the HUM team was in Berlin to host our third panel discussion, On Civicness and participating in public life through art practice. While there, we took the opportunity to catch up with several New Zealand artists and learn about their latest projects.

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

HUM live from the 2019 Venice Biennale

By Contemporary HUM

07.05.2019

HUM brings you live blog posts, videos, and exclusive images from the opening week of May You Live In Interesting Times, The 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, including Dane Mitchell's Post hoc for the New Zealand Pavilion.

Writing

An interview with Lisa Reihana

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 to Lisa Reihana, New Zealand's representative at the Biennale about her experience in Venice.

Writing

An interview with Kāryn Taylor

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 Kāryn Taylor about her work Field Notations, included in the exhibition Personal Structures: Open Borders at the Palazzo Bembo.

Writing

An interview with Francis Upritchard

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 to Francis Upritchard about her work in the Biennale.

Writing

An interview with Paul Handley

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 to Paul Handley about his practice and his work Déplacement (Smuggling Pod) (2017), included in the exhibition Personal Structures: Open Borders at the Palazzo Bambo.