NINA POWLES | The blue wave towers over me, rising up to the ceiling where it hangs suspended from domed glass. I imagine the wave rising higher and higher until it shatters the glass and flows out across the city in a blue current. This is Kiko Moana, a large-scale piece woven together from tarpaulin by Mata Aho…
HELEN YEUNG | It starts off with an idea, photocopying, creating, printing and stapling, and finally comes the birth of your very own publication, fit for circulating across the community. With the subculture of zine-making expanding in Aotearoa, these small DIY publications have become an increasingly significant medium for Asians living in diaspora…
AISHA JOHAN | Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan are a husband-and-wife team who emigrated from the Philippines to Australia in 2006. Their artworks often address themes of displacement, change, memory and community. Together they have exhibited at a number of international exhibitions including the 50th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia…
AUSTIN TSENG | An account of the New Zealand Chinese Association’s (NZCA) SS Ventnor Tour, 7-9 April 2018. In the early 20th century, the lives of Chinese migrants in New Zealand were often fraught with difficulty. Not only did they have to deal with the struggles of making a living in a new land, but also significant…
AUSTIN TSENG | The year thus far has been quite a treat for connoisseurs of stage productions. This output has been notable for the coverage of a much-neglected history. The releases of opera The Bone Feeder, play The Mooncake and the Kumara and “large-scale documentary theatre” piece OTHER [chinese] have given us a compelling trifecta of interpretations of the Chinese experience in Aotearoa…
MARGAUX WONG | This exhibition, like all things, began with a conversation. Late last year, after one of my family’s frequent visits to my workplace – they really come to see the dog Mia, not me – a conversation emerged about curating an exhibition on New Zealand Chinese. As our exchange strayed to food, as almost all of my conversations do, we began ruminating on the contributions the Chinese had made to this country…
AMY WENG | In trying to trace a collective history, I’ve come to the realisation that ours is a lot more incidental- filled with stops and starts- a non-linear digression through over a century and a half of co-habitation, but not necessarily of occupation. Where Asian New Zealanders have a stake in the political and public…