Exhibition reviewsArotakenga
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Enabling Phrases, Spaces, Places
Enabling Phrases, Spaces, Places
"In here, space is soft. Like blocking a lightbulb with your fingers, the walls betray an illuminated, epidermal glow." — Alena Kavka discusses Who can think, what can think at Te Tuhi

"The water in the container, that’s our bodies on display".
"The water in the container, that’s our bodies on display".
Hamish Win writes on James Oram's recent exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, By Spectral Hands.

Ritual of feeling
Ritual of feeling
In the colonial grandeur of Pah Homestead, Xi Li's Brain Island simulates a pulsating futuristic fantasy

Taking a line for a walk
Taking a line for a walk
Connie Brown writes on Sam Hamilton's installation at Artspace Aotearoa, Te Moana Meridian (2022)

Overlap and Unfurl
Overlap and Unfurl
Māori Moving Image ki Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the latest chapter in the Māori Moving Image exhibition series, is sensitive to the mauri of materials and place.

24 Hours Tāmaki: 2022 Edition
24 Hours Tāmaki: 2022 Edition
Dangerous dating, ESP, and community video: a quick-fire round up of moving image activity around Auckland's galleries.

An Indifferent World
An Indifferent World
Alicia Frankovich’s Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies at the Christchurch Art Gallery picks apart the desire to categorise, classify, and impose order on the natural world.

3 New Works in a Year of Protest and Pandemic
3 New Works in a Year of Protest and Pandemic
Louie Zalk-Neale, Gabriel White, and Jamie Berry showed new work on Masons Screen in Wellington's CBD while people protested against the vaccine mandates, and Aotearoa tipped in and out of lockdowns.

Those who have never dived so, do not know the sea
Those who have never dived so, do not know the sea
The colonial villa and its attendant myths of empire are collapsed by George Watson in her exhibition of new video and sculpture at Te Uru, Kōtiro, Emepaea.

Mauri and the Spirit of Art in Te Wai Pounamu
Mauri and the Spirit of Art in Te Wai Pounamu
Kai Tāhu collaborate with the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on three exhibitions Hurahia Ana Kā Whetu: Unveiling the Stars, He Reka Te Kūmara, and Paemanu: Tauraka Toi—A Landing Place, in "one epic and epochal mahi toi responding to mana whenua".

An Exercise in Vital Materialism, Rage-as-Orgasm, and Spirited Disillusionment
An Exercise in Vital Materialism, Rage-as-Orgasm, and Spirited Disillusionment
Samuel Te Kani reviews Artspace Aotearoa's annual new artists show, CRUEL OPTIMISM.

Bridget Reweti's Illustrated Shards
Bridget Reweti's Illustrated Shards
The exhibition Pōkai Whenua, Pōkai Moana at the Hocken Gallery showed new lens-based work created during Bridget Reweti's time as the Frances Hodgkins Fellow in Ōtepoti.

The Threats and Seductions of Mass Media
The Threats and Seductions of Mass Media
Emma Ng spends some screen time at Image Processors: Artists in the Medium – A Short History 1968–2020 at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

CREATURE, Marianna Simnett
CREATURE, Marianna Simnett
"Simnett’s survival strategy is to examine trauma's cooled, black, liquid residue, morphing the after-image into something new and darkly inhabited." Mark Williams visits Marianna Simnett's exhibition at City Gallery Wellington.

Happiness is Only Real When Shared
Happiness is Only Real When Shared
Presenting works by three contemporary artists from Aotearoa, Hong Kong and Turkey/USA, happiness is only real when shared addresses the current moment by imagining alternative realities, both absurd and frighteningly prophetic in scope.

24 Hours in Tāmaki Makaurau
24 Hours in Tāmaki Makaurau
Have Uber, will travel. A recent 24 hour sojourn in Tāmaki Makaurau presents an opportunity for whistle stop impressions of shows by Natasha Matila-Smith, Steve Carr & Christian Lamont, Shannon Te Ao, Ana Iti, and Toi Tū Toi Ora.

Imagine a Waterfall: Three Commissions for Masons Screen
Imagine a Waterfall: Three Commissions for Masons Screen
Walking from pre-European city pā sites to Masons Screen, Mark Amery considers three new public art commissions by Layne Waerea, Annie Bradley and Theo MacDonald, addressing uninvited visitors, bodily architecture and digital confessions.

A Culture of Light: Tyler Jackson’s LIGHT-HAUS
A Culture of Light: Tyler Jackson’s LIGHT-HAUS
Jackson reinterprets the monolith as a form of abstract cinema.

Nathan Pohio: Let it be to a Lofty Mountain
Nathan Pohio: Let it be to a Lofty Mountain
"Gone is the pastiche and irony inherent to much postmodern New Zealand art of the 90’s... This has been replaced by art that allows elements of hope, sincerity and emotion to sit alongside the cynicism and rationality of more traditional forms of critique."

Pressing the Bruise
Pressing the Bruise
A review of Fiona Amundsen and Tim Corballis's exhibition Human Hand.