Commentary

Periodising Site Specific Practice - an essay by Stephanie Beth

Writing Posted Mar 7, 2019
By Stephanie Beth
Josepha Judd, Interviewee, I Want to be Joan (1977)

In this long form essay film-maker Stephanie Beth reflects on two films made in 1977 and 1980 that sought to give voice to women, finding a kindred contemporary spirit in Ruth Buchanan’s Walter Prize winning installation BAD VISUAL SYSTEMS (2018). Inbetween, Beth reflects on the swirling political currents of the 1970s and 80s, the representation of female experience and strategies for film distribution both self-supported and institutional.

This essay is reproduced in celebration of International Women's Day 2019, and is included in the free CIRCUIT E-book The Time of the Now, 118 pages of papers and discussion from the 2018 CIRCUIT Symposium. Get it here.

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E-book: The Time of the Now

Writing Posted Mar 5, 2019
By Mark Williams

CIRCUIT is proud to present The Time of the Now e-book. 118 pages of interviews, presentations and discussion from the 2018 CIRCUIT Symposium. Free to download from the CIRCUIT website.

“…what has been happening today across some of the presentations is the articulation of a vision of what documentary could or should be, or how it could relate to an audience. That doesn’t always happen. In fact, it often doesn’t happen.” - Dr. Erika Balsom

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Summer Reading Series#5: Bridget Reweti's Ziarah (2018)

Writing Posted Feb 27, 2019
By Matariki Williams

Nearly 250 years ago, a large ship made its way from the Society Islands, charting south to its destination of Terra Australis. On board was a man who came to be revered, and loved, by the people he met. He was of course Tupaia, a tohunga, rangatira, ringatoi from the island of Ra’iatea.

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Summer Reading Series #4: Ronan Lee’s Big Night Down the Drain (Rain for Jacquie) (2018)

Writing Posted Feb 7, 2019
By Becky Hemus

"Lee is at once obstinate about the implicit labour that artists need to perform, and keenly aware that it is largely necessary in order to succeed. His reticence signals an admission that he is less commercially successful than he might wish to one day be, and a tenaciousness in his desire to carve his own path by producing art in a way that is authentic to him." - Becky Hemus

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Summer Reading Series 2018 #3: Solidarity Through Distance: Radical Imagination in the work of Ahilapalapa Rands

Writing Posted Jan 25, 2019
By Lana Lopesi

“Following in the footsteps of a suite of Indigenous futurist artists from Turtle Island to Hawaiʻi, Rands' animation uses traditional practices to imagine radical change.” - Lana Lopesi

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Summer Reading Series 2018 #2: Gray Nicol's Voodoo Dog

Writing Posted Jan 23, 2019
By Mark Amery

"Nicol’s work is like the poetic form of the elegy. It reaches out for contact with something that has been lost by reflecting on its representation - be that a photograph, a sculpture, a sound or a memory. Inevitably, as Nicol muses obliquely in the video, something is always missing." - Mark Amery

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Summer Reading Series 2018 #1: Oscar Enberg's Red Beryl

Writing Posted Dec 21, 2018
By Hamish Win

"Here we have a triage of historical invocations, the first people, that conventional hook of the indigene in the landscape, the movie prop as representation’s terra nullius, its implicit celebration of history as a technological marvel of progress, and finally Arp’s poem, his sheer verbiage of associative words, violent and unsettling, deliberately flung across this landscape as a desolate site of colonisation." - Hamish Win

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CIRCUIT Cast Episode 73: Complicated Love - 2018 in review

Podcast Posted Dec 18, 2018
By Mark Amery

In this two-part end of year podcast panellists Heather Galbraith, Shannon Te Ao, Simon Gennard join host Mark Amery to discuss the highs and lows of 2018, charting notable shows, artists and trends; the artworld's 'complicated love', and a year of diverse perspectives moving to the centre.

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"A contemporary art space is..." A conversation with Bochun Hsiao, Frankie Su and Sophie Davis

Interview Posted Dec 1, 2018
By Mark Williams

As part of an exchange with Enjoy Gallery in Wellington from 8 November-8 December, Taipei Contemporary Art Center present It Follows, a two part installation in Wellington which seeks to unpack some of the social, political and artistic ambitions of contemporary art spaces. CIRCUIT Director Mark Williams sat down with visiting TCAC curator Bochun Hsiao, TCAC board member Frankie Su, and Enjoy Director Sophie Davis to discuss the role of contemporary spaces like Enjoy and TCAC in an ever-changing landscape of institutional and artistic flux.

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Christopher Ulutupu, The Romantic Picturesque: The Postcard Trilogy, 1-25 November, The Physics Room, Christchurch

Writing Posted Nov 26, 2018
By Simon Palenski

The Romantic Picturesque presents the final installment of a 3 part series that follows "the thread of a romantic relationship between indigenous and coloniser."

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Fiona Amundsen, A Body that Lives, St Paul St Gallery, Auckland, 28 September - 26 October 2018

Writing Posted Nov 15, 2018
By Elle Loui August

Foliage, soil, silence. It Was a Cave Like This (2017-18) opens to the lens drawing a gentle, verdant line, bringing the viewer into the cool sensations of an undergrowth. A voice; “You helped do this.” “...You helped light this flame.”

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