Performance
Writing
Stories of Becoming
By Harvey Bruce Milligan
15.11.2022
Sitting at a bar assembled from upcycled materials in Taipei, Harvey Bruce Milligan reports from Aotearoa-based artist Xin Cheng’s contribution to IsLand Bar, an annual event in which artists are invited to construct a bar as a platform for performance. Addressing Cheng's use of re-purposed materials as a basis for creativity and connection, he explores the artist's consideration of a broad material ecology and her pursuit of connecting people to the lives of things in a wider project of "regenerative re-making".
Calendar
Xin Cheng, DOING EARTH
18 November —
27 November 2022
MOM art space, Hamburg, Germany
Calendar
Jen Valender, Broken Chord
02 September —
30 October 2022
The Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, Booragul, Australia
Writing
FAFSWAG at documenta fifteen
By Will Fredo
20.09.2022
Berlin-based artist and writer Will Fredo discusses the decolonial gestures at play in Aotearoa-based art collective FAFSWAG’s contributions to documenta fifteen, encompassing works that champion unapologetic self-expression, queer joy and the power of futurity in rejecting colonial inheritances.
Calendar
Sara Cowdell, 'Houses of Madness' A performance art work
02 July —
03 July 2022
Grace Exhibition Space Upstate, Kingston, New York, USA
Writing
On Civicness and Participating in Public Life through Art Practice - Panel discussion transcript
By Cat Auburn, Daniel Malone, Pauline Autet, Ruth Buchanan
14.12.2021
For Contemporary HUM’s third panel in October 2021, On Civicness, we sat down with Cat Auburn, Ruth Buchanan, and Daniel Malone in Berlin to talk about their practices, recent projects and what “civicness” means to them as Aotearoa artists working abroad—spanning Polish experimental theatre, the memory functions of NFTs and the power relations of collecting institutions. Read the full transcript of the panel discussion here!
Writing
Listening Like Breathing
By Ron Hanson
09.12.2020
Although an influential figure in the development of sound art, New York-based Annea Lockwood hasn't experienced the same level of exposure in New Zealand as she has experienced internationally. In this piece, White Fungus' editor Ron Hanson outlines his journey discovering Lockwood's work and speaks to the artist about her impressive career and pivotal developments in her field.
Writing
Plants, love, and multispecies engagements
By Essi Kausalainen, Robyn Maree Pickens
09.07.2020
After first meeting at the Saari Residence in the southwest of Finland at the start of 2020, Aotearoa writer and poet Robyn Maree Pickens and Finnish performance artist Essi Kausalainen discuss how their diverse practices can mirror each other, about plants and the more-than-human world, along with the ramifications of Covid on their wellbeing and practice.
Writing
Making Art in the time of COVID-19
By Chloe Lane
28.05.2020
Two US-based New Zealand artists - Amy Howden-Chapman in New York and Emma McIntyre in Los Angeles - share their experience of the Covid-19 lockdown, how it has impacted their practice and everyday life, and discuss the possible ecological outcomes of the lockdown, including the shifting of art practices to the online world.
Writing
The Near Side
By Jon Bywater
13.05.2020
The 22nd Biennale of Sydney opened on 14 March 2020 and unfortunately had to close its doors only nine days later due to Covid-19. Prior to its closing, writer Jon Bywater managed to visit NIRIN, looking in particular at participating artists from Aotearoa including Emily Karaka, Elisapeta Heta & John Miller, Lisa Reihana, Kulimoe’anga ‘Stone’ Maka, and FAFSWAG.
Writing
The Discreet Charm of Chance
By Jari Niesner
23.08.2019
In her recent exhibition Following the Rubber Trails, at Frappant Galerie in Hamburg, Germany, Xin Cheng addresses the politics, history and philosophy of rubber, in its varying forms. Writer Jari Nieser explores the artist's performance, film and installation.
Writing
Screaming Strawbears and other Strange Engagements
By Tessa Laird
05.07.2019
From Morris dancing to costume making, Berlin-based artist Matthew Cowan and arts writer Tessa Laird discuss Cowan's interest in folklore, the function of tradition in the modern world and the influence of surrealism on his practice. Cowan's exhibition The Scream of the Strawbear opens at Kunsthalle Giessen in Germany on 7 September 2019.
Writing
Feminist Hieroglyphics
By Louise Lever
25.06.2018
A conversation with London-based artist Sriwhana Spong about Spong's practice and in particular her recent video work A hook but no fish, 2017, originally presented at the Pump House Gallery in London, which speculates upon a secret language invented by a mystic 12th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen.
Writing
Nature at its Queerest
By Ulrike Gerhardt
20.05.2017
Ulrike Gerhardt reponds to Berlin-based New Zealand artist Alicia Frankovich's first major solo show in Germany, OUTSIDE BEFORE BEYOND at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf.
Calendar
Kate McIntosh, To Speak Light Pours Out
01 April —
02 April 2022
Kaai Theater, Brussels, Belgium
Calendar
Sriwhana Spong, The Poem is a Temple: performance for Live Art Commissions
6.00PM — 12.00AM
30 March 2022
Studio Spaces, London, United Kingdom
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Joshua Rutter and Dave Hall, Done and Dusted
05 February —
06 February 2022
Kunstraum / Waschhaus, Potsdam, Germany
Writing
On Civicness and Participating in Public Life Through Art Practice - Artist Statements
14.12.2021
For Contemporary HUM’s third panel in October 2021, On Civicness, we invited Cat Auburn, Ruth Buchanan, and Daniel Malone in Berlin to talk about their practices, recent projects and what “civicness” means to them as Aotearoa artists working abroad. In Part One, the artists introduce their recent practice and consider their relationship to civicness, community and the public sphere through a chosen project.
Calendar
Sriwhana Spong, The Poem is a Temple
6.00PM — 7.00PM
16 December 2021
Studio Spaces, Wapping, London, UK
Calendar
Ash Kilmartin in The Last Terminal: Reflections on the Coming Apocalypse
24 November 2021 —
31 January 2022
Rib, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Calendar
Ash Kilmartin, Total Control
19 November —
21 November 2021
Explore the North Festival, WORM Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Calendar
Sriwhana Spong: Ida-Ida at Spike Island
06 April —
16 June 2019
Spike Island, Bristol, U.K.
Writing
Movements of Outsiders
By Alexa Wilson
10.02.2021
Together with three of her contemporaries, interdisciplinary artist Alexa Wilson considers dance and performance art in the time of Covid - how does a medium that relies so much on physical presence, collaboration, audience and space respond to global lockdowns and a forced shift online?
Writing
Sriwhana Spong’s Ida-Ida
By Leah Reynolds
09.08.2019
London-based artist Sriwhana Spong has been exhibiting widely throughout the UK in 2019. In this essay, writer Leah Reynolds reviews Spong’s recent exhibition Ida-Ida at Spike Island in Bristol, considering the key, interrelating ideas of her work, and Spong’s use of a variety of mediums.
Writing
Test Run
By Jennifer Thatcher
13.12.2018
We hear from three artists who, over the last three years, have completed, or are completing, a three-month residency at London art centre Gasworks. Sriwhana Spong in 2016, Katrina Beekhuis in 2017, and Hikalu Clarke, who is half-way through his, all share their experiences and thoughts on this important opportunity.
Writing
Hotel Jaguar
By David Lillington
11.10.2018
HUM commissioned David Lillington to review Amanda Newall's recent project at Exposed Arts Projects in London, which occupies an old Jaguar car dealership. Newall's site-specific response, called Hotel Jaguar, encompasses an eclectic range of works and collaborations with other artists, on topics ranging from Jaguar and Brexit; Trump and witches; social dreaming and murders.
Writing
999, Alchemist Trauma Centre / Power Centre
By Jorge De Hoyos
11.07.2018
Berlin-based Jorge de Hoyos first experienced Alexa Wilson's current project 999: Alchemist Trauma Centre / Power Centre when both artists were auditioning for a Masters in Solo Dance Authorship in Berlin. In this part-essay, part-interview, they discuss the work, which is due to be performed in London, Berlin, India and NZ later this year, and exchange their views on feminism and challenging binary perceptions.