Art & Art Production
Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival
It's been a pleasure to produce the first three iterations of Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival, a space for all performance art of all kinds - raw, real, radical.
Jennifer K Shields
Essays
Sometimes my layers clash with your layers
collaborating with others with different experiences, though often more difficult, can be beneficial—for both parties or just one? collaborating across lines of privilege when you are the one holding that privilege requires responsibility and respect.
Essays
'the artefacts of the past are still here': Ana Iti's 'the past is a foreign country'
It was a simple install - two pieces of Halswell quarry stone in the main room; a small portrait leaning against the wall at the back of the hall, in what once may have been a laundry cupboard; and two delicate pencil drawings of detailed masonry paired with poetry printed on office paper stock.
Essays
Still, Like Air, I'll Rise
There is a sea change in the Ōtautahi arts scene. This city feels a lot more like home than it did when I left over a decade ago, and on every visit since. Suddenly, Christchurch feels possible.
Speaking Engagements
Pecha Kucha: Why I Stopped Fucking with Gender
when people think of ‘transition’ it’s usually in binary terms, and it’s usually thought of as ‘complete’. most importantly it’s thought of as the only way. but that’s not the complete trans experience. a lot of people do most of those things and a lot do some and some do none at all.
Essays
Structures of Brick and Quiet Undertones: Considering Contemporary Christchurch
The context of this city in 2016 is irremovable from earthquake recovery, but the tone of that context has moved from shock and mourning to exploring the potential of the rebuild as well as frustration with that process.
Essays
weaponised abjection & queer identity / visibility / experience
If being abject is distant, is other, is not something normative society wishes to face, then weaponising that abjection, emphasising it and making it impossible to ignore, is a radical act.
Essays
A Cult of Representation: Ignoring Harmful Ideologies in Favour of Queer Rep
Perhaps what we need is a new L Word; one filled so thoroughly with minority representations that we no longer are the minority; one that does not utilise our representations to justify harmful normative ideals.
Essays
"Beautiful and Lofty Things": Queer Appeals to Power & Turn of the Century Sexology
“How could it be unhealthy, that which makes a man happy and inspires in him beautiful and lofty things! His only misfortune is that social barriers and penal codes stand in the way of ‘naturally’ expressing his drive. This would be a great hardship.”
Art & Art Production
w e l c o m e
My first exhibition, a group show at Artspace Aotearoa alongside DANCE Art Club, John Vea, Single Brown Female, and more.
Essays
Para-: A Contemporary Working of Parasexuality
Contemporary workings of parasexuality describe specific kinds of relationships between majority groups and marginalised groups or people; relationships where structural power imbalances are at work.
Essays
Interview with Alex Metcalf-Wilson on Para-
I got an email from Alex Mitcalfe Wilson about a piece he’s writing as part of Artspace’s critical texts series on W e l c o m e.. The following is my response, containing his questions. The piece is in reference to the essay Para- and the accompanying sculpture.