Breath of Weather Collective & Phil Dadson, 'Kōea o Tāwhirimātea: Weather Choir' (still), 2022-ongoing. Commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Image courtesy of the artists.

Writing

Ngā Huarere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa: Pacific Weathers

By Melody Nixon

01.08.2023

US- and Aotearoa-based writer Melody Nixon responds to digital artworks in Te Moana Nui a Kiwa; a weather station in the World Weather Network project featuring works by over twenty artists from Aotearoa and Oceania. One of twenty-eight stations in the project, the station featured online artworks by Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, Denise Batchelor and Maureen Lander, The Breath of Weather Collective, and a collaboration between Janine Randerson, Ron Bull, Rachel Shearer, Stefan Marks and glaciologist Heather Purdie. Nixon discusses how a selection of these works may reorient our approaches to the climate crisis.

Image courtesy In*ter*is*land Collective

Writing

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series 2.3

By Ioana Gordon-Smith, Michel Mulipola, Skawennati, Solomon Enos

07.06.2023

Our third episode in this new talanoa series, produced in collaboration with In*ter*is*land Collective, sees Michel Mulipola, Skawennati and Solomon Enos discuss the importance of shapeshifting, imagination and innovation in Indigenous storytelling, as well as in their respective practices. Written response by Aotearoa writer and curator Ioana Gordon-Smith.

Calendar

Maree Horner, Enigma of Life

06 June —
06 December 2023

Artdoc Photography Magazine, online

Front cover, pen and black ink. Detail from the manuscript Avant et après by Paul Gauguin. © The Courtauld.

Calendar

Yuki Kihara, 'Avant et après: Gauguin’s final words' conference

23 June —
24 June 2023

online

Calendar

Paul Cullen Archive, Proposition #4: Linnaeus

31 March 2023

Linnaeus Garden, Uppsala, Sweden and online

Beberemos El Vino Nuevo, Juntos!, 2022. Installation View, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, 2022. Image: Eduardo Cerón Tillería.

Writing

To Move Across a Window

By Francisco González Castro

31.01.2023

Texas-based artist and writer Francisco González Castro was first introduced to the many-armed project Beberemos El Vino Nuevo, Juntos! / Let Us Drink the New Wine, Together!, co-created by artist and educator alys longley and featuring no less than 19 Aotearoa contributors, just as the pandemic was escalating internationally. Here, he considers the lessons it presented to audiences in Santiago in the summer of 2022, just as the distance that defined the collaborators’ interactions was once again traversable.

Digital model of the Eise Eisinga Planetarium situated on Proposition #1 r/p/m publication cover, 2022. Courtesy of Paul Cullen Archive

Calendar

Paul Cullen Archive, Digital r/p/m proposition #1: Planetarium

22 December 2022 —
22 December 2025

Eise Eisinga Planetarium, Franeker, the Netherlands and online

Calendar

Paul Cullen Archive, Proposition #2: Octagon Room

31 January 2023 —
31 January 2025

Royal Observatory, Greenwich, UK and online

Writing

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series 2.2

By Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Grace Iwashita-Taylor, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Lana Lopesi

12.12.2022

Our second episode in this four-part talanoa series, produced in collaboration with In*ter*is*land Collective, sees Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Grace Iwashita-Taylor and Lana Lopesi discuss their recent writing initiatives, each focused on fostering the conditions that allow Indigenous writing to flourish. Written response by Aotearoa writer and curator Ioana Gordon-Smith.

Calendar

Brian Fuata, 'of a house besieged (preposition tweaked)'

27 January 2023 —
27 January 2025

The Kitchen Video Viewing Room, Online

Writing

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series 2.1

By Ioana Gordon-Smith, Rosanna Raymond, Tanu Gago

10.10.2022

Our first episode in this four-part talanoa series, produced in collaboration with In*ter*is*land Collective, has Rosanna Raymond and Tanu Gago reflecting on recent international projects and the difficulties of being Moana artists working in countries with cultural amnesia over their colonial pasts. Written response by Aotearoa writer and curator Ioana Gordon-Smith.

Robbie Motion, Apparition, 2022. Courtesy Nomadic Art Gallery

Calendar

Robbie Motion, Bodily Incarnations

13 September —
30 October 2022

Nomadic Art Gallery, Online

Project

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series 2

Partnership

Following on from our 2021 talanoa series, this is a new round of edited online talanoa (conversations) between several tagata Moana (Māori and Pasifika people) across the globe, once again produced in collaboration with In*ter*is*land Collective.

Each talanoa in this series focuses on different topics central to life in the diaspora and is individually responded to in writing by Ioana Gordon-Smith, a Sāmoan/Pākehā arts writer and curator living in Aotearoa.

Image courtesy Jessica Palalagi/In*ter*is*land Collective

Writing

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series

By Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Ariana Davis, Jaimie Waititi, Jessica Palalagi

25.09.2021

The final episode in 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 Ariana Davis, Jessica Palalagi and Jaimie Waititi as they explore the idea of ReMoanafication, individual and collective connections, and reclaiming narratives.

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.

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.

Project

Forever Fresh Talanoa Series

Partnership

A collaboration between In*ter*is*land Collective and Contemporary HUM consisting of four edited online talanoa (conversations) between several tagata Moana (Māori and Pasifika people) across the globe which centre around the principles of talanoa; ofa, mafana, malie and faka'apa'apa (love, warmth, humour and respect) and the ability to have a "reciprocal knowledge exchange".

The talanoa within this series will focus on topics such as life in the diaspora, moana futurism, queer identities, and ReMoanafication, and all will be individually responded to in written form by Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Te Rarawa), reminding us of our intricate connection and shared ancestry in Te Moananui-a-Kiwa.