Tension and precarity are not new concepts for most cultures, especially since the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Māori have dealt with these issues before. Great migrations, wars and the constant onslaught of colonisation have given us examples of how our tīpuna handled these situations.

"He kanohi kitea" (a face seen) is an important saying and value in Māoridom, acknowledging the importance of meeting people face-to-face to build relationships and trust. Enjoy’s new commissioned artwork He Kanohi Kitea is situated in our reading room, an inviting place to nurture and encourage these interactions to take place. Within a global pandemic this acknowledges kanohi kitea hasn't always been possible, along with the realisation of how important the physical presence of seeing people face-to-face is to our overall wellbeing.

The name He Kanohi Kitea was gifted by our close friend and neighbour Tehani Buchanan. Thank-you so much for supporting this kaupapa. Much aroha to the whānau and for your mahi.

Sophia Coghini, Tautai Arts Intern 2021 at Enjoy has overseen this project as commissioning curator.

Thank-you to Jim & Mary Barr for your crucial support of this project.

Precious items can have an important role in ritual and performance, with connections to sacred and intimate body parts; be it a handmade vessel we drink water out of, a comb we brush our hair with, or an elegant ring passed down from generations. They can be made of rare materials, be well-crafted and artisanal, but more vitally tend to have emotional significance or spiritual importance, something that is passed on and carried through us, evoking the memory and presence of loved ones.

Pieces of is an exhibition of handmade ceramics, video work and biofuel research by Tamaki-based artist and cook Ruby White. Concentrating on rediscovering and repurposing traditional clay working techniques to create functional ceramic cookers White combines old and new technologies to "look with apprehension and hope toward climate change and our collective future."

This exhibition is created for each other, excuse our selfishness. We offer each other conditions to work that avoid and deter the ridiculous and indefensible aspects of "normal" practice. This has been an extended period of trust and experimentation, resulting in an exhibition that cradles and nurtures the others’ ambitions, at times quite literally.

—Grace Ryder

I started making this work when my kuia passed. I traveled home to live at her house for a year. I wanted to be close to her again. A story she told me that has stuck with me: the account of her father’s drowning on the Tongariro River in Tūrangi. I have since visited the spot again and again.

How does time pass in a day, in a year, in a life? Within Māori cosmology, Māui and his brothers famously bound Tama-nui-te-rā, onwatcher to our humanity. Before, it was cold and Māori were starved of time. Perhaps our movements were slow. Inhibited by an endless night.

Lay in measures is a new exhibition by Ōtepoti Dunedin-based artists Megan Brady and Ed Ritchie. The exhibition considers how architectural composition unconsciously affects bodily experience, through small-scale interventions of sound, subtle sculptural installations and replicated furnishings.

For History reserves but a few lines for you, Areez Katki presents a series of textile works which build upon the artist’s ongoing enquiries into craft traditions, sites of queer intimacy and the complexities of migratory experience.

Working with discarded goods and salvaged materials, Bound in secret knots includes new sculptural and moving image works by Pōneke Wellington-based artists Bena Jackson and Teresa Collins.

JustUs is a new solo exhibition by Te Upoko o Te Ika-based artist Chevron Hassett. Drawing from his experiences growing up in Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt, Hassett has developed a photographic installation that explores the lived realities and representation of Māori men in contemporary Aotearoa.

Optimism and its afterlives thinks around a series of transitional moments, including works by artists who have found themselves witness to or bound up in scenes of change.

Cutouts is an exhibition of new paintings and assemblage sculptures by Ammon Ngakuru. Exploring the material economies of gathered objects and a particular architectural site, Cutouts prompts us to reconsider biography or identity, exploring the way that history is read in the post-colonial context of Aotearoa New Zealand.

For !ERROR! Pōneke-based moving image artist Laura Duffy has invited artists to dance in front of a green screen set up, and transported them to another, limitless, realm.

Bush coat is an exhibition of new sculpture, moving image and textile work by Murihiku Southland-based artist Daegan Wells. Taking the social politics of wool as its starting point, Bush coat playfully interrogates the role of natural materials—and the craft forms and industry around them—in our shared and personal histories.

Creative energy is frequently spoken about in relation to a particular kind of passion or ignition, from the feeling of an initial spark to a sense of burnout. We often circle around the metaphor of tending a fire when trying to grasp at this as a question of maintenance as well as one of intuition. This speaks to resources, knowledge and relationships that require ongoing care and attention.

This is a library, curated by Hanahiva Rose, is an exhibition of work by Teuane Tibbo, Christina Pataialii, Salome Tanuvasa and Claudia Jowitt.

We’re thrilled to announce Daegan Wells as Enjoy’s 2020 Summer Resident. Currently based in Southland, Daegan will spend six weeks in Pōneke from 3 February–14 March 2020. While here, he’ll stay at the Rita Angus Cottage in Thorndon, working out of the cottage’s Fernbank Studio.

Emerita Baik contemplates form, abstraction and language in her exhibition 꿈 / ɯnʞʞ. Taking objects from her family home such as photographs, prayer cards and furniture as starting points, the artist has reworked their forms into playfully stacked structures or skeletons.

Breadzels
Chain mail
Egg before chicken
Mutual interference
Hagfishes
Eclairs/Croissants/‘Horn’ pastries
Bedroom/showroom/backroom
Allergies
Over-commitment
Patchwork
Thatched roofs

Soft Spot is a solo exhibition by Lucy Meyle driven by a sculptural exploration of types of containers and coverings, from those we interact with in everyday life to the more historic, fetishised or unusual. Looking at materials like slipcovers, crusts, shoes, and various kinds of ‘shells’, the artist considers how these can be interfered with in unexpected or humorous ways.

Elbow-room in the universe is a performance-based project curated by Victoria Wynne-Jones that includes work by artists Sholto Buck, Amy Howden-Chapman, Sonya Lacey, val smith and Fiona Williams.