Homing Instinct

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

KAHURANGIARIKI SMITH
He uri nō ngā tūpuna i heke mai ai i runga i ngā waka o Te Arawa, o Tainui, o Mataatua, o Takitimu, o Horouta hoki, Kahurangiariki Smith is a Māori artist living in Aotearoa New Zealand. In recent years Kahurangiariki has been collaborating with her māmā, Dr Aroha Yates-Smith, a leading academic on the ancient Māori feminine. Kahurangiariki’s work explores her mother’s research and the many personifications of atua wāhine (Māori goddesses). She works to manifest these atua wāhine into a physical form, locating them in the present and in our futures. Sometimes playful, sometimes cheeky, Kahurangiariki’s work explores a range of media such as moving image, karaoke, 3D rendering, video games, neon and writing.


ARI ANGKASA
Ari Angkasa is an artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Ari's work considers the liminal zones she inhabits in transitioning and in diaspora as time-less sites of release. Through her practice, Ari manipulates genre conventions of art, film, and theatre, to explore the notion of healing as existing solely on 'island time'. Ari's practice is a restorative process, a survival instinct in response to structural oppression. Ari's research work tracks the legacy of Western cultural neo-imperialism and aims to archive such impact through her artistic practice documented in a conscious framing of the body as cinematic medium. Ari's practice has spanned across moving image, performance, installation, and writing, and she utilises research methods from the Institutional Critique movement in art to synthesise the cultural trauma held in the body in relation to tangible structures of power. Ari has exhibited recent works with Immigration Museum, The Substation, and Gertrude Contemporary, and Seventh Gallery. In 2021, Ari was one of the inaugural recipients of Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV)’s Diasporas Commissions. Ari is currently in production for How do I let you die?, a short film developed in part by the commission, premiering at Arts House as part of a hybrid theatre work of the same title written by Michele Lee.


ANANTA THITANAT
Ananta Thitanat is a self-taught filmmaker and photographer with over 12 years of experience in documentary making. Ananta was born in Bangkok, Thailand and raised by a worker at Siam cinema. Ananta has participated in international forums and workshops including Docs By The Sea in Indonesia, and Yamagata Documentary Dojo in Japan. She gained recognition for her debut feature documentary, Scala, which was selected for multiple international film festivals and received critical acclaim. Scala premiered at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival's Forum section, and went on to screen at international film festivals including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, World Film Festival of Bangkok, and Hot Docs. The film won the EIDF Youth Eye Award at the EBS International Documentary Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 World Film Festival of Bangkok, honourable mention winner in the Best Mid-Length Documentary category at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Thailand National Film Association Awards 2022 for best documentary feature.


DIENEKE JANSEN
Dieneke Jansen is an artist based Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, who works with lens-based documentary and social practice. Jansen's practice engages with tensions between site-responsive interventions, performative actions and lens-based documentary practices, and works with community to productively challenge inequality. Projects such as Dwelling on the Stoep, Jakarta Biennale, 2015, and Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery (then St Paul St Gallery), Tāmaki Makaurau, 2016; working with the Tāmaki Housing Group on exhibitions G.I. Areas A & B, 2015, and 90 DAYS+, 2018, Te Tuhi, Pakuranga), and Backdoor Doorbell Studio, Artspace Aotearoa, Tāmaki Makaurau, 2022, inform her current work, which focuses on the social dimensions of lens-based practice with inner-city residents in Tāmaki Makuarau.