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
Calendar
Yuki Kihara, 'Avant et après: Gauguin’s final words' conference
23 June —
24 June 2023
online
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.