Identity
Writing
Te Matahiapo Collective in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry
27.04.2025
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).
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).
Project
Vidéo Club New Zealand, Takiwā Hou: Imagining New Spaces
Partnership
For the second international edition of “Vidéo Club”, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in France joins forces with Te Tuhi in Aotearoa New Zealand in an exchange initiated by curator Marie Griffay and supported by Contemporary HUM.
In this exchange, FRAC presents works by three Māori moving image artists, Russ Flatt, Kahurangiariki Smith and Suzanne Tamaki, taken from Te Tuhi’s 2024 exhibition Takiwā Hou: Imagining New Spaces. These works use a variety of subject matter, including karaoke, photogrammetry and social networks, to explore Indigenous spaces and possibilities that have yet to see the light of day. Aotearoa audiences can then see works by French artists Anouk Nier-Nantes, Émilie Pierson and Marina Smorodinova, at Te Tuhi in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Writing
And I dance into the future with the past, as a bird
By Haruko Kumakura
27.12.2024
Writing on Aotearoa New Zealand’s presentation at the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Shannon Te Ao’s Ia rā, ia rā (rere runga, rere raro) - Everyday (I fly high, I fly low) (2021), Haruko Kumakura argues that the work brings into focus what the thematic exhibition of the Biennale misses: a weaving together of the voices of the past, present and future appropriate both to the political context of its exhibition and the social and ecological urgencies of our time.
Calendar
Erena Baker Arapere and Rychèl Thérin Scott, DESCANSOS (We die 1000 deaths)
09 November —
15 November 2024
Glasgalerie, Vienna, Austria
Calendar
Yona Lee, between the lines
19 October —
16 November 2024
Openspace Bae, Busan, South Korea
Calendar
Sylvia Marsters, E Kura Reitumanava no Rarotonga (Love Letters for Rarotonga)
08 October —
02 November 2024
Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Calendar
Hawkfish, A Taste of Honey
10 October —
08 December 2024
St. Lawrence University, Canton, USA
Calendar
SaVĀge K'lub, transfeminisms Chapter IV: Care and Kinship
12 September —
26 October 2024
Mimosa House, London, UK
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
John Pule: In Conversation
5.00PM — 6.00PM
12 September 2024
Venus Over Manhattan, NYC, USA
Calendar
Katrina Iosia, Marais DigitARt
13 September —
22 September 2024
Café La Perle, Paris, France
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 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.
Calendar
et al.: epochal
05 October —
07 December 2024
Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Naarm Melbourne, Australia
Calendar
Yuki Kihara, transfeminisms Chapter III: Fragile Archives
05 July —
17 August 2024
Mimosa House, London, UK
Calendar
Rhea Maheshwari, The Tapestry of Time - An Exploration of Indian Miniature Art
10 July —
14 August 2024
MAG Contemporary, New Delhi, India
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
Tom Denize and Iann An, An obscuring of self - a veil between yours and theirs
03 April —
15 June 2024
Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre, Bundoora, 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
Art Summit 2024
13 June —
15 June 2024
various locations in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Calendar
Hoʻoulu Lāhui: Regenerating Oceania: 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture
06 June —
16 June 2024
Hawaiʻi Convention Center and various locations in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Calendar
Rozana Lee, Studio Kura residency
01 May —
31 May 2024
Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan
Writing
We Work Well Together
By Julia Craig
11.02.2024
Presented at Phillida Reid, Claudia Kogachi’s Labour of Love and Nova Paul’s Hawaiki offer frames through which to view the role of collaborative practice in building worlds of love, care, and self-determination.