Using the framework of the Talmud, When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing) interweaves various writings and re-writings of how to be Jewish and what it means to be Jewish today. With the script of Fiddler on the Roof acting as a contemporary iteration of Mishnah, the exhibition stands as both a critical investigation into and a love letter to contemporary Jewish culture.

Blue Oyster is pleased to present Hā, an exhibition of new work by Moana Nui a Toi-based artist, Arapeta Ashton. Hā explores ways of seeing and understanding Parakiekie through the creative process, from a plant—kiekie—through to its final form as kākahu.

Film Screening curated by Sonali Joshi and Mark Williams
Presented in partnership with CIRCUIT

Religion and empire collide and convolute, binding itself to the settler state. It forcibly assimilates subjects into the colonial body—a good body, a moral body, a silent body. 

UKU//UTU aims to disrupt the structure of a formal exhibition as a site for wānanga, where practitioners and guests with specialist knowledge will facilitate discussion around uku and its impact on relationships with ourselves, other people and places.

OTHER [ōtepoti chinese] investigates the experiences of Chinese people in Ōtepoti, asking what it means to be Chinese—ethnically, culturally and socially—here and now. 

If you have nothing nice to say considers the notion of empathy in public spaces; text and audio are used to explore the act of public platitude, as seen on people’s bodies, clothing and transportation. 

Once More, with Feeling is an improvised, choreographic experiment in 4-D. The performers navigate a terrain of their own making, exploring choreography, time and space, whilst contending with the influence of an omnipresent, Clairvoyant Mr Fox.

Under the guise of a double agent, working as Bookings Coordinator/Official Artist in Residence at a luxury car dealership, Elisabeth Pointon’s practice investigates how shared spaces are becoming sites for communal isolation. 

Formations, presented as a series of glazed experiments with local rocks and materials applied to fired pottery, has been developed according to the movement of water relating to the land and landscapes of Ōtepoti.