Wild Wild Life

How is Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland City described outside of the official city map? Is it possible to navigate off-road, off-grid? What discrete spaces exist in the plain sight of everyday work, life and commerce? How are these activated by people, flora and fauna? Beyond visual recognition, how might we know them, sensorially? How does revitalisation occur in the transitional spaces of the urban landscape?

Wild Wild Life is a collection of seven new artist videos developed in response to the city of Auckland.

Featuring works by Tia Barrett, Leala Faleseuga, Gavin Hipkins, Jae Hoon Lee, Obadiah Russon, Layne Waerea and Gabriel White, the programme includes a queer road movie, sci-fi wanderings, the historical wairua of Kiekie, migration from Samoa to Māngere, legal definitions of public space, and meditations on our virtual interconnectedness.

Commissioned by Auckland Council and curated by Mark Williams for CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, Wild Wild Life is installed at a series of site-specific locations across the inner city, and designed to be walked in one day using a map created for the project.

The entire programme of works also plays on the Aotea Square Digital Stage at the following dates and times;

• 6pm Fri 8 March

• 5pm Fri 15 March

• 6pm Fri 22 March

Artist Talk

Friday 15 March, from 4–5 pm

Auckland Arts Festival Spiegeltent, Aotea Square

with artists: Tia Barrett, Leala Faleseuga, Gavin Hipkins, Jae Hoon Lee, Obadiah Russon, Layne Waerea, and Gabriel White.

Programme

Tia Barrett, Maungakiekie (2024)

"Spoken about by Mana Whenua as a living tīpuna (ancestor), Maungakiekie, (One Tree Hill) holds space within a concrete jungle to an existence that once was vastly different to the life it lives today. The pūrākau (story) within the name, like many poutokomanawa whenua (significant landmarks) in Aotearoa, holds accessible mātauranga (knowledge) in plain sight. Creating alongside Maungakiekie is a woven hononga (connection) that reimagines the existence of the indigenous climbing shrub Kiekie back on the tīpuna maunga. Maungakiekie is a silent moving image that embodies a moment of reflection, a nod to the past, and a sense of maungārongo (peace) in the chaos that is city life." — Tia Barrett

Tia Barrett (Waikato—Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tamainupō, Ngāi Tahu) is an Kirikiriroa-based artist predominantly working in lens-based practice.

Leala Faleseuga, Lealaivaega (2024)

"Lealaivaega is an exploration of place, a recreation, reclamation and remembering of the artist’s late grandmother’s Māngere East home and garden. Imbued with alofa and nostalgia, it also acknowledges the significance of domestic spaces for immigrants in the diaspora.

The work uses old family videos and photos, anecdotes, flowers, as well as items from the home to illustrate vignettes of memory, which are presented in an almost dreamlike sequence. The choral soundtrack from 1974 features my grandmother and three other family members. Locating this work back in the CBD acknowledges the rich Pasifika history that the inner city of Aukilani has, of which the artist’s grandmother and aiga were part of. Lealaivaega is the Sāmoan name that the artist and her grandmother share.

In loving memory, alofa tele." — Leala Faleseuga

Leala Faleseuga (Sāmoa, Salelologa / The Netherlands, Limburg & Friesland) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Aotearoa. Their practice is grounded in photography, alternative processing, analogue-digital cycles and painting, evolving to encompass video, digital collage, and writing.

Gavin Hipkins, Motion of a Current (2024)

"Motion of a Current documents Tāmaki Makaurau’s public gardens, by drifting across the city, using slow-motion video recording. Collating diverse garden landscapes and flora details forms a hybrid sanctuary, presented here as backdrop to the city’s rhythms, communities, and neighbourhoods. Shot from a train window, views of passing homes form a map of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s town planning and liminal spaces. Calling on divergent references, including a nineteenth century essay on gravitation and astrological symbols, art and science collide in this new work. A poetic sequencing of passages and signs considers how we negotiate Tāmaki Makaurau’s spaces and places today, and into the future." — Gavin Hipkins

Gavin Hipkins is an award-winning artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. His practice navigates ideas of social and political utopias by documenting leisure sites including urban parks and public architecture.

Jae Hoon Lee, Space Tree (2024)

"Passing over a series of inner-city sites, the Space Tree glides in perpetual movement. Like a mysterious extra-terrestrial organism, it flourishes in countless directions; defying conventional patterns of growth whilst seeming to follow a pre-determined web. Although not yet manifest in the local ecosystem, sustenance for the space tree comes from its continuous visits to Auckland locations including the cemetery, Zoo, and city centre. Finally, it bursts beyond the boundaries of the city. The combination of the Space Tree's organic growth and virtual interconnectedness represents both a technological fantasy and a mirror of the dynamic nature of our modern world." — Jae Hoon Lee.

Jae Hoon Lee’s multiple migrations and his preoccupation with new advances in technology continue to define and inform his practice. At the same time, his work demonstrates an enduring concern with place, movement and individuality.

Obadiah Russon, TWICE (2024)

EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DUSK

Young woman crouches on the side of a quiet, semi-rural street, waiting. Light rain; it is a humid night in Auckland. Dark clouds hover overhead.

Beat-up Honda pulls up, driven by another young woman. The waiting girl runs to the car, dropping a bag on the back seat.

The car pulls out and they drive, the sun lowering on the horizon. City lights begin to appear around them.

…

EXT. CITY CAR PARK ROOF – NIGHT

Honda waiting alone in car park.

Two young women appear at the top of the stairs, and walk towards the car. Sky black-blue, moon hangs low above the horizon.

The car doors slam. Silence falls.

Girls stare ahead.

The car starts and descends the levels of the carpark, leaving the city.

They drive, just breaking dawn follows behind them. — Obadiah Russon

Obadiah Russon is an artist originally from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Currently based in New York City, USA, she works between video and sculpture.

Layne Waerea with Joe Jowitt, Ziggy Lever, Deborah Rundle, and Charlie Stringer, Bonus Play (2024)

"Bonus Play locates itself in the contested public spaces of inner city Tāmaki Mākaurau Auckland. In particular, Auckland Council’s 'bonus floor scheme' which, since the 1970s, has encouraged private developers to increase the floor space of high-rise buildings by providing public access or a 'public benefit' as a result of the changed built-up environment. These usually take the form of pedestrian access-ways through buildings, escalators, widened footpaths, and privately-owned artworks accessible to the general public. This work acknowledges and explores these public spaces and benefits and offers an alternative and playful map that at times sits alongside, intersects, and even overlays existing routes, paths and junctures of inner-city Tāmaki Makaurau." — Layne Waerea

Layne Waerea (Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Kahungunu, Pākehā) is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland whose practice involves carrying out performance art interventions that question and challenge preferred social and legal behaviours in the public sphere.

Gabriel White, Motorway Flowers (2024)

"Near the beginning of The Aeneid (29-19 BC), Aeneas is wandering around snapping twigs off trees, trying to find a decent oracle. Blood oozes out of a tree and voice says: 'this is NOT a good place to build your city—be gone!' These days we have the opposite issue. The city is everywhere—we're looking for somewhere other than the city. We pick up broken bits of it and listen for the oracular voice coming from the power box or the wheelie bin. It says: 'Keep going. Head towards the abandoned shopping trolley. Take the abandoned shopping trolley through the stormwater drain. When you come out the other end, there’s a patch of grass waiting for you'." — Gabriel White

Gabriel White is a musician, performer and moving image artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. His moving image work explores industrial and suburban landscapes as a field for playful, surrealist improvisation.