Turumeke Harrington & Grace Ryder - Help Yourself

Nau mai, haere mai!

Enjoy Contemporary Art Space is pleased to present Help Yourself, a new exhibition co-authored by artist and designer Turumeke Harrington (Ngāi Tahu) and curator Grace Ryder, alongside friends Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tuhoe) and Greta Menzies.

Invited by previous director Sophie Davis to create an exhibition for Enjoy, long-time friends Turumeke (Tui) Harrington and Grace Ryder have established an experimental approach to exhibition-making, framed by mutual benefit and growth. Allowing each other space to develop their interests in this overarching project of art-making, they have co-authored Help Yourself, a group show that is a testament to friendship and working with one another in mind.

Harrington, a prolific maker with a background in industrial design and fine art, presents objects, furniture and installations. Her works are playful and inviting, potent in their sincerity and ambition and filled with other presences — her parents, daughter, friends and peers. Ryder, the previous director of Blue Oyster Art Project Space and most recently curator for The Dowse Art Museum, conceptually examines the complexities of friendship, optimisation and generosity through the curation of this exhibition, looking at the context of art collaboration.

They have invited two more artists and friends on board, Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tuhoe) and Greta Menzies, asked to ”create something, anything, that is for someone else”. Hudson and Menzies are two practitioners whose practices draw on mutual understanding of love and friendship in its broadest sense. —sisterly love, charity, hospitality, desire, the appreciation of beauty and affectionate regard.

"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.

This exhibition is realised with support from Enjoy's core funding partner, Creative New Zealand, alongside other supporters and patrons. With thanks to Resene Paint for sponsoring this exhibition.

About the artists
Grace Ryder (originally from Ōkakea West Melton) is a curator currently based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She previously worked as a curator at The Dowse Art Museum, Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt (2020-2021), director at Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Ōtepoti Dunedin (2017-2020), gallery co-ordinator at CoCA Toi Moroki, Ōtautahi Christchurch (2015-2016) and co-founded and curated North Projects (2014-2016).

Turumeke (Tui) Harrington is a Ngāi Tahu artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, living with her daughter and partner. She has a background in industrial design and a fine art. An interest in whakapapa, space, colour and material sees her creating large sculptural installations at the intersection of art and design.

Sarah Hudson is an artist, researcher and mother living below Kaputerangi in Whakatāne. Alongside her fellow soil enthusiasts from Whakatāne, Sarah founded Kauae Raro Research Collective in 2019. Sarah is also a member of Mata Aho Collective who have exhibited extensively since their first exhibition and residency at Enjoy in 2012. Inspired by customary Māori textile practices and industrial materials, Mata Aho Collective creates large-scale installations with a single-authorship.

Greta Menzies is an artist living in Pōneke Wellington with her partner and three children. Recent work explores a fascination with the psychology of belief, absurdist philosophy, and meaning-making. Her multidisciplinary practice merges art and craft sensibilities, using an intuitive making process to create sculptures, paintings, and video.