Writing & PodcastNgā Putanga Kōrero

Nat Tozer's A Sapling to Tie (2025) draws Rosa Cachemaille into its verdant imagining of the possibilities and pleasures of an Aotearoa childhood, in the final Masons Screen Summer Writing Commission for 2025.

Kat Rowan reflects on performance, community, and belonging in Wesley John Fourie's Mason's Ballad (2024), in the second of the Masons Screen Summer Writing Commissions for 2025.

Matthew Whiteman mines chance and the unconscious in Claus Lucas' Three Studies (2024), in the first of the Masons Screen Summer Writing Commissions for 2025.

Thomasin Sleigh stitches material, memory, and meaning in Interlaced: Animation and Textiles at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

In the first of three essays, CIRCUIT'S Kaitiaki Kiriata, artist and curator Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka explores the guiding mātauranga of Rematriation, a programme of moving image works by contemporary Māori artists.

Curator Abby Cunnane reflects on understandings of home, shelter, and belonging through the works in the international touring exhibition Homing Instinct.

Jane Wallace excavates layers of meaning in the aural and visual registers of the six artists' films shown in the 2024 play_station Film Festival.

Samuel Te Kani considers existentialism and affect in the work of sculptor and performance artist Peter Roche, viewed through the lens of Night Piece, a new documentary by Bridget Sutherland.

Hana Pera Aoake explores the poetic and generative role of whakapapa—a means of creating layers—in Emily Parr's Through the time spiral: ʻOli ʻUla (2021).

"There is a vitality that is held in the earth" — a kōrero between artist Nat Tozer and CIRCUIT director Mark Williams on the occasion of the Aotearoa premiere of Erotic Geologies, Tozer's most complex work to date.

Artists Dieneke Jansen and Heleyni Pratley discuss using art as a tool for social justice, moderated by Mark Williams and presented at Enjoy Contemporary Art Space in association with the exhibition Homing Instinct. 

"I see the environment as a creative partner" — a kōrero between Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) and Tia Barrett (Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Tamainupō, Ngāti Maniapoto), the third and final episode of the CIRCUIT Cast series Hihi Aho.

Kirsty Baker considers creation, expansion, and the contingencies of mystic Hildegard Von Bingen's Lingua Ignota in Sriwhana Spong's a hook but no fish (2017).

"Whanaungatanga is this gift we have as Māori to connect and to relate" — a kōrero between Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) and Sandy Wakefield (Ngapuhi, Ngāi Tahu), the second episode of the CIRCUIT Cast series Hihi Aho.

Bronwyn Holloway-Smith responds to the 2024 Masons Screen commissions and considers the potential contribution of public art to contemporary political discourse.

"To mark a mountain by a song" — a kōrero between Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) and Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka (Ngāpuhi, Ngati Pakau and Waitaha), the first episode of the CIRCUIT Cast series Hihi Aho.

Samuel Te Kani responds to Skin in craters like the moon, an exhibition at Te Tuhi of recent works by Tāmaki Makaurau-based, Taiwanese (Han, Min-nan) artist Susu 蘇子誠 that explored associations between language and memory across virtual and physical worlds.

Artists Layne Waerea, Leala Faleseuga, Gavin Hipkins, Jae Hoon Lee, Gabriel White and Tia Barrett discuss their video works for Wild Wild Life with curator Mark Williams.

Victoria Wynne-Jones considers an amicable approach to historiography in three recent works by Tim Wagg.

Wild Wild Life is a collection of seven new artist videos installed at a series of site-specific locations across the inner city of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, designed to be walked in one day. Featuring works by Tia Barrett, Leala Faleseuga, Gavin Hipkins, Jae Hoon Lee, Obadiah Russon, Layne Waerea, and Gabriel White.