EssaysTuhinga roa

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.

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.

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).

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).

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

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

Mark Amery considers the role of moving image in giving voice in the work of artist Cushla Donaldson, with a focus on the 2021 film, Neighbourhood of Truth.

In this expansive and lyrical text, writer Gwynneth Porter explores poetry, self-fictioning and plasticity in three recent works by Aliyah Winter.

Lila Bullen-Smith writes on she feeds the birds (2023), a dystopian filmic take on Tāmaki Makaurau by Lily Worrall.

A picture essay of CIRCUIT's trip to Bangkok, featuring Aotearoa artists Martin Sagadin, Pati Tyrell, Tanu Gago and a community of Thai artists and film-makers.

Sinead Overbye considers artists' approach to place and representation in the 2022-23 Masons Screen commissions.

"The reality of being in this country as descendants of settlers is something that is more akin to the reality of swamplands" — Alena Kavka writes on Kate van der Drift's show at Pah Homestead

In Alex Plumb's moving image works, fact, fantasy and sonic detail imagine what reality might be.

Martin Rumsby has passed. We remember the pioneering film-maker, writer, programmer and champion of New Zealand experimental film.

This side or that side, or almost. Standing by is an online exhibition of three video works by Richard Orjis, Emily Parr, and Janaína Moraes, accompanied by an essay by Alys Longley.

Three regular contributors to CIRCUIT, Tessa Laird, Simon Palenski, and Becky Hemus, select an animated work from CIRCUIT's catalogue and share their thoughts about it. Featuring works by Brit Bunkley, Jill Kennedy, and Jae Hoon Lee.

Ten artist videos on CIRCUIT using poetry, text and waiata as material and inspiration for moving image works and cine-poems.