a temple, a commons, and a cave
Albert Ashton & Wai Ching Chan
Kaoru Kodama
Peng Jiheng & Thomas Lawley
Aya Yamashita
a temple, a commons, and a cave was conceived as an urban enquiry into how disparate social, cultural and political genealogies intersect within a singular site. Woven together from the drift of ideas and peoples from across the Asia-Pacific region, this exhibition considered the following: how do we shape our environment, and how does our environment shape us?
Presenting a range of video, sculptural and sound-based works, the artists in this exhibition employed a multiplicity of languages and strategies - translation and mimicry, deconstruction and whakawhanaungatanga - to navigate relationships with the present and with each other. Spaces of friendship and benevolence coexist alongside sites of sleek neoliberalism. Overlapping histories and ideologies are mapped out on a malleable topography, providing playful interpretations of our current critical moment in the South Pacific.
a temple, a commons, and a cave was curated by Amy Weng, was proudly supported by the Asian Aotearoa Arts Huì and hosted by MEANWHILE gallery.
Arapeta Ashton and Wai Ching Chan, video still.