This week we take inspiration from the work of artist Hayden Fowler. Born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand and now currently based in Sydney, Fowler’s work explores humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the broader historical and cultural concepts that influence this engagement. He often touches on themes involving desire, freedom, loss and ‘the romantic hope for a return to nature’. His work New World Order, 2013, is currently exhibited in Precarious Nature.

In New World Order, a series of sliding vignettes show exotic, peculiar birds perched in grey woodland. Preening and calling, these are rare heritage breed chickens, their unusual plumages markedly different to the domestic fowl. The scene is bleak, inducing and engaging with Solastalgia, a term coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht, which describes the sense of helplessness and distress induced by the loss of our environment, natural ecosystems and biodiversity. This work also draws on contemporary discussions around ecological destruction, genetic modification and the alienation of an increasingly urban society from the natural environment. These themes inspire this week’s blog. 

Our Gallery Coordinator, Jennifer Shields was lucky enough to attend Hayden’s talk here at CoCA. Below is a short text she has written about the work.

“Hayden Fowler’s New World Order is so incredibly immersive and realistic that it was not until his artist talk late last year that I realised it was a set, painstakingly crafted in his Sydney studio. At the same time, however, the landscape depicted seems so alien that I found myself, when watching the work beforehand, wondering where the hell on earth it could possibly have been filmed. Everything is incredibly grey and hazy, and the chickens so varied and obviously pedigree that I thought of some farm or reserve in the days immediately after a forest fire.”

Solastalgia: a sense of helplessness and distress induced by the loss of our environment, natural ecosystems and biodiversity

Anne Finegan’s text Solastalgia and its Cure delves deeper into the meaning of Solastalgia. In it, she states, “The cure for solastalgia lies in reconnecting or recreating the community of the commons - cultural and natural resources of the land, water air etc.”  The full text is definitely worth a read can be found here.

The emergence of Solastalgia is linked to the Anthropocene; a a new epoch in earth’s geological timeline. The Anthropocene refers to a phase in the earth lifecycle where all aspects of the earth’s systems are greatly influenced by human induced activity. Above is a video which explains how we have got to this stage in the earth lifecycle and why. This video touches on neoliberalism, industrialised capitalism and climate change. 

Image Source

In Aotearoa, we have lost 42 percent of our terrestrial birds since human settlement 700 years ago; 57 species have gone extinct (read more here). The strange birds in Fowler’s work are heritage breed chickens, domesticated birds which have travelled with humans around the world. Their bizarre appearances in the landscape of his work make them seem alien, imaginary; the landscape could be a future where naturally occurring evolution doesn’t exist, and only breeds selected by humans continue. Maybe these breeds we create will outlast us. 

With the continuing process of mass industrialisation and intensive land clearing, there is still pressure on the survival of our remaining native birds. Changes in habitat, climate change, draining and clearing of wetlands for agriculture, and predation by possums, stoats and rats all threaten vulnerable populations.  

Forest and Bird is a long standing non-for-profit organisation here in Aotearoa, they have been around since 1923 and have helped establish protection for a third of our country’s land in parks and reserves, put an end to logging of our native forests and helped bring species such as the kakapo and kokako back from the brink of extinction. To support the work they do for our native birds and natural environment you can donate to their organisation here or like them on Facebook to get updates of events they are holding. Or if you would rather get involved with the great work they are doing around the country, you can sign up to be a volunteer here. 

Climate change will and is having a large impact on the livelihood and survival rates or our native birds. Forest & Bird are currently holding events surrounding the Paris Agreement in lieu of the incoming Climate Change Minister - Paula Bennet. Forest & Bird have stated, “Paula Bennett, the incoming climate change minister, has a big challenge to match the ambition of the Paris Agreement by increasing New Zealand’s efforts to prevent climate disruption”. You can find out more about it here and can also check out their upcoming events here. 

This weeks blog is inspired by artist Taloi Havini. Taloi is of the Nakas clan, Hakö People. She was born in 1981 Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville and emigrated to Australia in 1990. She lives and works in Melbourne, Sydney and Buka. As an interdisciplinary artist, her practice centres on the deconstruction of the politics of location, and the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Her triptych Sami and the Panguna Mine
from the Blood Generation series is currently exhibited in Precarious Nature.

In her research, Taloi engages with living cultural practitioners and Oceanian material collections and archives. She often responds to these experiences and sites of investigation with experimental ceramic installations, print, photographic and video, making both solo and collaborative works. The Blood Generation are the children born into and following the civil war over land in Taloi’s native Bourgainville. Buka youth are documented in their landscape, by Taloi and photographer Stuart Miller, including in the devastated area around the Panguna mine. The series depicts the ravages of open-cut mining, as well as the deep connection to land that her people have; their cultural resilience in the face of colonisation and government-sanctioned forced removal from their ancestral homelands. 

The triptych Sami and the Panguna Mine revisits the time when Sami’s aunties and other women landowners in Bougainville stood against mining on their land. Women leaders are still fighting to be heard on the unresolved issues of social, economic and environmental impacts of reopening the mine. They reject agreements which saddle them to the original PNG 1988 Mining Act, in which there is no acknowledgement of women landowners

Colonisation and Capitalism have played a hefty role in the exploitation of indigenous land over the past 500 years up until today. Talal Asad (1991) states, “It tells of European imperial dominance not as a temporary repression of subject populations, but as an irrevocable process of transmutation, in which old desires and ways of life were destroyed and new ones took their place” (p.314). 

The University of Otago published Maori and Mining in 2013; a document which looks at the way “Māori have responded to the issue of mining in three main ways: as an economic opportunity, provided that there are environmental safeguards; as a discussion around Treaty rights; or as an environmental issue requiring strong opposition in order to carry out traditional and enduring relationships with Papatūānuku, Tangaroa and future generations.” - Page 4. 

They assert that the issues facing Māori are the issues facing all Indigenous peoples globally.

Close to home: Oil exploration

Earlier this year an article was released announcing that a large area off the coast of Canterbury as well as large coastal areas surrounding the North Island will be offered for oil and gas exploration. The image above shows some of the proposed sites. The risk of oil and gas exploration is tremendous, not only does it threaten our natural environments and coastlines, it places immense pressure on sea life and marine environments. It also threatens traditional food gathering sites and areas of spiritual significance to mana whenua.  

A local not-for-profit organisation called Oil Free Otautahi is fighting back against government pressures to engage in deep sea oil drilling around our coast. Oil Free Otautahi is a Christchurch based organisation dedicated to stopping dangerous deep sea oil drilling in New Zealand waters. They have been around since 2011, organising events such as the Christchurch version of Hands Across the Sand. They often hold protests, workshops, meetings, as well as educating people about the dangers of oil drilling not only in Aotearoa but at a global scale. For more information about their organisation and how you can join the cause, you can visit their Facebook page here. 

Drilling for oil, gas and minerals is a global issue. A more recent, well known example of this happening is the North Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The North Dakota Access Pipeline starts in North Dakota and travels south-east towards Iowa. The pipeline runs through an ancient burial ground, which is sacred to the Sioux as it holds ancestral ties. Protests have been occurring around the country, with almost daily protests on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Not only does this pipeline run through ancient burial sites, it also poses environmental risks such as the poisoning of water, soil and air. In an article posted 12th December 2016, it was reported that 1760,000 gallons of crude oil had leaked into a creek not far from the protest grounds. For more information on what is happening in North Dakota and how you can help you can check out Rezpect our Water who have an abundance of information and petitions you can sign. 

Below is a video that was posted in this article here, of a Native American women (Anishinaabe), Winona LaDuke discussing why we need to move on from Fossil Fuels, the Sandpiper Pipeline and why some tribes have been forced into cooperating and depending on the fossil fuel industry for economic stability. 

The concept of curating and directing CoCA has now become a reality. I have said my farewell to Plymouth in the UK and flown across the globe and landed in Christchurch. I am now well into my second week of work on New Zealand soil.

On route to Christchurch I was fortunate to experience the Venice Biennale. Located in a sensational, historic setting, this is the largest of the world’s biannual contemporary art events. Okwui Enwezor is the renowned curator of the main exhibition All the World’s Futures. On for another five months, the exhibition is essentially about the state of the world today and how artists are reacting to and making sense of global issues. The exhibition is spread across two sites: the Arsenale, a beautiful former rope and ship building yard; and the well-maintained Giardini (gardens), surrounded by 29 pavilions built from 1907 onwards by the various nations participating in this enduring Biennale. There is also a surprisingly extensive collateral programme of creative projects and exhibitions around the city.

Experiencing so much artwork in one place left me with many highlights and potential resonances for CoCA. The pavilions give you a sense of global contemporary art, some of the works clearly defining the state of artists’ respective countries.

Artist Simon Denny, who is representing New Zealand, was extremely well received. His project Secret Power was partly prompted by the impact of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks of National Security Agency (NSA) PowerPoint slides which outlined top-secret US telecommunications surveillance programmes. These slides highlighted New Zealand’s role in US intelligence work, as a member of the US-led ‘Five Eyes’ alliance. Now out in the open, the slides have come to represent international surveillance work and its impact on individual privacy. Denny’s ‘Biennale Arte 2015’ project has gained lots of international press and put New Zealand in the spotlight in the ‘art world’.

For me, Chinese artist Xu Bing’s Phoenix (above) most powerfully aligned with the curator’s concept for the Venice Biennale. Throughout China’s history, every dynasty has had its form of phoenixes. Representing luck, unity, power and prosperity, these mythological birds have, for the most part, been benevolent, gentle creatures. The pair in this exhibition, made out of materials used for China’s commercial development, reflects the grimmer and grittier face of China today. Essentially, the phoenix expresses unrealised hopes and dreams.

An opportunity that I hope to bring to CoCA from Venice is a fantastic work by British/Ghanaian artist John Akomfrah. I have worked with Akomfrah and the production team Smoking Dogs over the last few years, resulting in commissioned work. Akomfrah is a polemic artist, and working with him has definitely impacted on my thinking as a curator.

Akomfrah’s presentation Vertigo Sea is on display in the Biennale’s Central Pavilion. It is a new three-screen/channel film installation about whaling, the environment and our relationship with the sea. For the last 30 years, spanning cinema, television and gallery-based installations, Akomfrah’s work has engaged with questions of memory and identity, creating moving-image works, which give a voice to African migration in Europe. He fills gaps in history using archival material to create documentary-style ‘film essays’ and speculative fictional stories about our past. He is renowned for pushing the boundaries of documentary film.

During my quick four days in Venice, I enjoyed making new connections and developing existing relationships, both with the art and with the people. I am looking forward to applying this learning to CoCA’s projects here in Christchurch.

I am a firm believer that to make knowledge and skills relevant to a location you have to first experience the place. I’m really looking forward to experiencing and learning about the city so I can get a sense of how CoCA can once again become a key focal point and resource for the public and local art communities. I am extremely excited to be here!

Kia ora koutou.

Paula Orrell
Director & Principal Curator, CoCA

Image: Xu Bing’s Phoenix (2015) hanging between two boathouses at the Arsenale.