A mihi to the mamas mamas mamas and their mamas passed 
 

Hiraeth is a Welsh word describing a spiritual longing for a place that we have never been. It is the lost ancient places we imagine our ancestors would stomp their feet into their lands and the grief we struggle to locate in our bodies—a dislocated homesickness for a motherland we have never belonged to. Sylvan Spring and Holly Walker have researched and worked collaboratively to illustrate the intimate and at times awkward rituals they engage with, in a concerted effort to become truly Tangata Tiriti.

God the Mechanical Mother is an exhibition of extraction and post-metaphysical effluvia. Kat Lang experiments with primordial and time-bound materiality, and offers a deconstructed ontotheological study into the implications of meaning and uncertainty.

Proposal for a Body posits that sound and text-matter are mediums that can be regarded as inherently queer in their expansive and corporally liminal states. Jo Bragg and Georgina Brett draw on the music and writing of artists Loren Connors and Kim Gordon to communicate through sound and poetry abstract-experience; what is inexplicable.

Enjoy is excited to present Yardstick (2016) a film by Quentin Lind screening on our website over summer.

In All This Work Is Necessary, Ashleigh Taupaki presents a series of layered maps consisting of the archival text media and legislation that has negatively impacted the Hauraki wetlands. The reading list below is a small selection of resources that Taupaki has used throughout her studies.

I never know how to write about us, do you?  

The Tableau of Two Throats is a performance by Tobias Allen with Josh Lowe, performed live in the basement of S&M's Cocktail Lounge on 16 December 2022.

We’re excited to announce Heidi Brickell is our 2023 Summer Resident. Heidi is an artist currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and will join us as artist-in-residence from 11 February – 26 March 2023, staying at the Rita Angus Cottage in Thorndon.

In Pasifika cultures, it's a no-brainer to call up your aunties, uncles, cousins, family members and friends to help with fundraisers. Rallying together is what we DO and do well. In Samoan culture there is a type of community fundraiser often hosted by schools, villages and churches called a tausala.

Globally, we live in an age that worships the new. The old is disregarded as we witness monumental global change and participate in deep–time alterations. Contemporary culture offers us activism by tweet; metaverse fever dreams; ideological warfare; humanoid immortality; and off-planet utopian fantasies. We’re seduced into feeding narcissistic distractions that demand constant input while populations are displaced by conflict and climate. In this age—founded by materialism, industrialisation and the spoils of empire—we view ourselves as intrinsically separate to nature: flora, fauna, organic and inorganic matter on this planet. Not only are we conditioned to take for granted a fictitious understanding that humanity is the singular possessor of agency, our sense of time has become dislocated and short-sighted.

It is usually taken for granted by museum visitors that archaeological objects are chronologically displayed according to certain scientific classifications. These methodologies serve a continuous historical narrative, either to promote simplified Darwinian evolution of humanity from primitive to modern, or patriotic sentiments. This methodology also guides the selection of the objects to be exhibited. Yet this leaves us with a rarely asked question—how about objects which cannot be integrated into the museum’s story, and thus are rendered as ‘others,’ by current museology?

Ko wai a Māpihi? This is not water is an exhibition backed by a lot of investigation conducted by the artists Cae and Nick and the communities and people who’s knowledge they have drawn on. Books and essays, as the research materials behind the scene, have also been included as an integral part of the resultant exhibition, the presence of which is of great importance to accomplish the artists’ aim in this exhibition.

Earlier this year we announced Eleanor Diaz Ritson as the Enjoy Contemporary Art Space 2022 summer resident artist. Four weeks into her residency at the Rita Angus Cottage in Thorndon, Enjoy’s assistant curator Tom Denize paid her a visit to see how her residency was going and bring some light to the inner workings of her practice. 

We’re pleased to announce Eleanor Diaz Ritson is our 2022 Summer Resident. A painter and writer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Eleanor will join us as artist-in-residence from 14 February–26 March 2022, staying at the Rita Angus Cottage in Thorndon.

Haere mai whanau and join me, 2021 Tautai arts Intern Sophia Amore Coghini, while we indulge in the fourth in our series of artist interviews. 

Pōneke based artist Tallulah Farrar has created the digital illustration He Kanohi Kitea  that now enlivens our communal reading room. Tallulah works across multiple mediums, such as digital illustration, textiles, mosaic, murals and animation. Drawing inspiration from the everyday, she uses bright colour and pattern to capture moments of ordinary beauty. Tallulah uses her practice as a tool for playful escapism, influenced by nostalgia and growth. Let's see what she's been up to.

Tom Denize is currently studying for a BFA at Massey University and has been interning at Enjoy for 2021 as part of the Massey internship elective. Part of Tom's work at Enjoy has been reviving the reading/writing group. The in person meet-ups are on hold due to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 and 2 restrictions, so here are some of Tom's top reading picks.

Tautai arts intern Sophia Amore Coghini is back at it again, with the third in a series of artist interviews. We continue with Tāmaki Makaurau artists whose planned exhibitons at Enjoy have been disrupted or rescheduled due to Covid restrictions.

Ziggy Lever has had his 2021 exhibition rescheduled to later this year (fingers crossed and COVID-19 alert levels permitting). His art reconsiders archives as provisional arrangements of images and matter, opening up the possibility to renegotiate sites of knowing and not knowing. 

Here's what Ziggy's been up to. 

Join Tautai arts intern Sophia Amore Coghini for the second in a series of interviews with artists on what they got up to this lockdown. We're starting with Tāmaki Makaurau artists whose planned exhibitons at Enjoy have been disrupted or rescheduled due to COVID-19 Alert level 4 and 3 restrictions.

Artist Hanna Shim 심한나 has had her 2021 exhibition rescheduled to Feburary 2022. Shim identifies herself as a maker, often working in large scale fabric sculpture. Her works talk about naivety with a sinister undertone. The works may seem cute, but are filled with unexpected twists and irony.

Here's what Hanna has been up to lately. 

Enjoy our new series of artist interviews, conducted by Tautai Arts Intern Sophia Amore Coghini, for a cheeky little insight into what several artists got up to this lockdown. We're starting with Tāmaki Makaurau artists whose planned exhibitons at Enjoy have been disrupted or reschedueled due to COVID-19 Alert level 4 and 3 restrictions.

Artist Ruby 嫦潔 White's exhibition Pieces of  is in its final week at Enjoy. Ruby's ceramic works/cookers/creatures are currently stranded in Te Whanganui a Tara until restrictions are lifted allowing Ruby to come pick them up.