Books
Calendar
Darcy Lange, Videography as Social Practice by Mercedes Vicente
21 November 2023 —
21 November 2028
Available to order online
Calendar
Gregory O'Brien, From an Island in the Antipodes: Poetry and Painting
17 January —
10 February 2024
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Project
Kunst Kopfüber / Art Upside Down
Partnership
The Goethe-Institut New Zealand and Contemporary HUM present a series of portraits about New Zealand artists who have found a new physical - and artistic - home in Germany. Kunst Kopfüber / Art Upside Down invites six international writers and curators to look at the practice of six contemporary artists from Aotearoa working across a variety of mediums, from video art to painting; large-scale installation to poetry. The written portraits about contemporary painter Sam Rountree Williams and poet Hinemoana Baker kick off this collaborative series.
Calendar
Stephanie O'Connor, All stars stand close in summer air
09 August —
15 August 2023
SóLaura Studio, Berlin, Germany
Calendar
Yuki Kihara, 'Avant et après: Gauguin’s final words' conference
23 June —
24 June 2023
online
Calendar
Alice Connew, Bruce Connew, Catherine Griffiths and Katie Kerr in UNFOLD 2023: Shanghai Art Book Fair
09 June —
11 June 2023
Start Museum, Shanghai, China
Writing
Reading Artists’ Books with Interjections from a Daphne on Pete’s Front Step
By Hamish Petersen
21.02.2023
HUM’s Senior Editor considers the unique capacities of artist books by exploring three Aotearoa artists’ international projects from recent years. They learn how the intimate encounter between page and reader relies on finely tuned elements to realise some kind of sovereignty over the artist’s story or recognition in their reader.
Calendar
Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood author discussion
16 March 2023
Southbank Centre, London, UK
Writing
Caretaker to Caretaker
By Bopha Chhay, Paula Booker
18.01.2022
In Part One of this interview, Vancouver-based Aotearoa curators Paula Booker and Bopha Chhay talk about Chhay’s work as director of non-profit artist-run initiative Artspeak, the meaning of care in a curating role, the relationship between writing and art, and the place of artist-run initiatives in Canada and Aotearoa.
Writing
On Louise Stevenson's 'Someplace Else'
By Chris Holdaway
24.08.2021
In Someplace Else, Louise Stevenson chronicles her complex and unfolding relationship with Hungary, travelling back and forth from Aotearoa since her first visit in 1991. In this elaborate, handbound mixed media book, Stevenson traces decades of travel with careful preservation of ephemera, annotating ticket stubs and found photographs with her own drawings and writing. In this piece, poet and bookmaker Chris Holdaway considers the memories that inhere in overlooked items, repurposed carefully by Stevenson as talismans of place and the passage of time.
Writing
Raw Matériel
By Emil McAvoy
10.06.2019
Within the greater context of the recent massacre in Christchurch, San Fransisco-based New Zealand photographer Jono Rotman discusses his new work Matériel which depicts a series of privately owned guns in the US, and his recent publication Mongrelism, which features the New Zealand-based gang, the Mighty Mongrel Mob.
Writing
Mana Moana in the UK’s year of Captain Cook
By Ahilapalapa Rands, Jo Walsh
21.09.2018
London-based cultural producer Jo Walsh and artist Ahilapalapa Rands discuss some of the exhibitions and programmes taking place in the UK to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's departure to the Pacific, which also resonates to many as the start of colonisation in Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa. In this conversation piece, Rands and Walsh focus in on the projects they have been involved in, working with The British Library, Whitby Library and other UK institutions, and their efforts to disrupt the major narratives surrounding Cook.
Writing
This Model World, Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art
By Will Gresson
08.12.2016
Will Gresson reviews the book This Model World, Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art, by Anthony Byrt, published in 2016.
Calendar
'Conflict In My Outlook' Book Launch
2.30PM — 3.30PM
07 May 2022
QAG, Brisbane, Australia
Writing
Caretaker to Caretaker
By Bopha Chhay, Paula Booker
18.01.2022
In Part Two of this interview, Vancouver-based Aotearoa curators Paula Booker and Bopha Chhay talk about Chhay’s work as director of non-profit artist-run initiative Artspeak, the challenges of maintaining a space during COVID-19, what decolonisation in art institutions can be like and working on unceded territory, and curating recent projects around the relationship between art and writing.
Writing
Directions in Art Publishing during Covid-19
By Freya Copeland
10.09.2021
Reflecting on the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world of independent book publishing, artist, curator and co-founder of Berlin-based Replika Publishing, Freya Copeland writes on the history of artists’ books and the role of independent publishing. She considers the lessons the industry can learn after a year and a half without art book fairs—usually an essential opportunity for publishers to meet collaborators, distributors and other publishers, and how the world of art book publishing might evolve going forward.
Calendar
White Fungus at Booked: Hong Kong Art Book Fair
16 January —
19 January 2020
Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
Calendar
White Fungus at Taipei Art Book Fair
13 November —
15 November 2020
Taipei Art Book Fair, Huashan Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan
Writing
Taiwan-New Zealand Dialogue
By Catherine George, Catherine Lee, Isis Mingli Lee, Ron Hanson, Wan-Jung Wei
22.12.2020
A panel discussion exploring new ways of making art and connecting with audiences amid Covid-19 in New Zealand and Taiwan. Held on October 24 2020 and organised by the Taiwan Cultural Policy Research Association, as part of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts (TTTIFA).
Writing
Samoan Queer Lives (2018)
By Pauline de Souza
04.03.2019
Eleven years in the making, this is the first publication of its kind; a collection of 14 short stories from fa'afafine, or transgender and queer Samoans, focusing on their individual experiences in historic and modern times. Edited by artists Dan Taulapapa McMullin and Yuki Kihara, and published by Little Island Press in October 2018.
Writing
Responses to the International Literature Festival Dublin
By Ashleigh Young, Claire Mabey, Kirsty Gunn
26.07.2018
This year, the International Literature Festival Dublin had a special focus on New Zealand writers, inviting Ashleigh Young and Kirsty Gunn to participate, along with other New Zealand literary figures such as Hera Lindsay Bird and Selina Tusitala Marsh. With an introduction by Claire Mabey, Director of LitCrawl Wellington, the writers explore their links to Dublin, the concept of 'female essayists' and their overall impressions of the festival.
Writing
Learning from Athens (There and Elsewhere)
By Laura Preston, Wystan Curnow
18.12.2017
For over a year, Laura Preston was based in Athens to work as associate editor of documenta 14 publications, including South as a State of Mind released in four issues. HUM invited the art writer and editor to reflect on this experience, who in turn, extended the invitation to fellow New Zealander and distinguished art critic, curator and poet Wystan Curnow. What results is a two-part correspondence in which the pair reflect on their imagined and lived experiences of Europe coming from their other south.
Writing
Amidst and Beyond
By Alice Connew, Virginia Woods-Jack
10.03.2021
To celebrate the February 2021 release of Dwelling in the Margins: Art Publishing in Aotearoa, a new publication by GLORIA Books, HUM is pleased to republish this extract in which two photographers speak about their artistic and publishing practices, and about their work highlighting women in photography through collaborative projects and platforms that foster debate, visibility and community.