Colonialism

Calendar

Sarah Hudson, Reconciliation, Setouchi Triennale

18 April —
09 November 2025

Megijima, Seto Inland Sea, Japan

Calendar

Kereama Taepa, Fondation Fiminco Residency

10 April —
13 June 2025

Fondation Fiminco, Paris, France

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

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.

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).

Calendar

Reuben Paterson, In The Stars I Trust

07 October —
20 October 2024

Jutta Gallery, NYC, USA

Writing

On truth and telling stories

By Hana Pera Aoake

04.10.2024

Aotearoa artist Hana Pera Aoake reflects on their visit to the Venice Biennale and the questions posed by its central exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Unearthing the fraught political contexts of Venice, Aoake asks who is really made strange by the Biennale; and whether the presenting Aotearoa artists are able to retain the specificities of place within a curatorial frame that groups categories of difference under the theme of the “stranger”.

Calendar

Luke Willis Thompson, Mouvement des Malades

07 September —
15 September 2024

Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin, Germany

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.

Calendar

Emily Karaka, Ka Awatea, A New Dawn

07 September —
01 December 2024

Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Calendar

Talia Smith, 2024 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging)

05 July —
08 September 2024

Artspace, Gadigal Lands Sydney, Australia

Calendar

Greg Semu, Sacred + Forbidden

03 July —
23 September 2024

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Gadigal Lands Sydney, Australia

Calendar

Jasmine Togo Brisby, It Is Not a Place

20 April —
16 June 2024

Institute of Modern Art, Meanjin Brisbane, Australia

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

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.

Calendar

Yuki Kihara, Paradise Camp: Homecoming film screening

24 June —
27 June 2024

Espace Encan, La Rochelle, France

Calendar

Yuki Kihara, Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao

29 June —
07 October 2024

National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri Canberra, Australia

Calendar

Yuki Kihara, artist talk

6.00PM — 7.00PM
04 July 2024

Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK

Calendar

Tamsen Hopkinson, The Wishing Well

20 June —
20 July 2024

Connors Connors, Naarm Melbourne, Australia

Calendar

Robert Jahnke, Te Wepu MMXXIII in Personal Structures

20 April —
24 November 2024

Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy

Calendar

Jasmine Togo-Brisby in Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum

01 March —
02 June 2024

Art Gallery of South Australia, Kaurna land Adelaide, Australia

Calendar

Nikau Hindin, Time Honoured Technologies panel discussion

12.45PM — 1.30PM
10 March 2024

White Bay Power Station, Sydney, Australia

Calendar

Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux, residency

01 November —
01 December 2023

The Sointula Art Shed, Malcolm Island, Canada

Calendar

Kahurangiariki Smith, Lisa Reihana and Yuki Kihara, Singing in Unison Part 8: Between Waves

10 October 2023 —
12 January 2024

Industry City, New York, USA

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.

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.

Calendar

Tamsen Hopkinson, James Nguyen: Open Glossary

16 September —
19 November 2023

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia

Calendar

Sam Hamilton with Clara Chon, Dr. Tru Paraha, Mere Tokorahi Boynton, Rhonda Tibble, Vaimaila Urale, Te Moana Meridian

25 August —
07 October 2023

Converge 45 at Oregon Contemporary, Portland, USA

Writing

The Octopus Against a Sharp White Background

By Amit Noy

14.05.2023

Writer and choreographer Amit Noy reviews Atamira Dance Company’s performance of Te Wheke in the Lenape territory of New York City, and finds a work enlivened by indelible performances and critical Indigenous inquiry.