Nirun Panel Discussion

Join Sorawit Songsataya, Madison Kelly, Robyn Maree Pickens and Hanahiva Rose for a discussion of Nirun: the exhibition and the publication. The talk will engage with the publication texts, shared interests, and each contributor’s practice.

Songsataya’s Frances Hodgkins Fellowship exhibition, Nirun, explores (im)permanence, motion, the cyclical and the accumulative nature of ‘home’ at varying scales. Shaped by the richness within Te Waipounamu, the exhibition includes a series of Ōamaru limestone sculptures, prints, films and LED animations that investigate our relationships to place, distance and people.

The exhibition publication, also titled Nirun, presents contributions from May Adadol Ingawanij, Madison Kelly, Moewai Marsh, Mya Morrison-Middleton, Robyn Maree Pickens, Riar Rizaldi, Hanahiva Rose, Ashley Thompson, and the artist. As Hocken Librarian Catherine Hammond writes in the foreword, “This book is connected to the exhibition which opened in the Hocken Gallery in March 2023, but also stands alone as an imprint of their process and collaborations.”
The exhibition and panel discussion are free to attend. All welcome.
--
Sorawit Songsataya is a multimedia artist born in Thailand, currently living in Ōtepoti, where they were the 2022 Frances Hodgkins Fellow. Sorawit is interested in redefining the boundaries of subjectivity and ecology and their interdisciplinary work encompasses sculpture, ceramics, textiles, moving-image, and 3D animation.

Madison Kelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Pākehā, b.1994) graduated from the Dunedin School of Art in 2017, with a BVA (Hons First Class). Grounded in Kāitahutaka, observation and sensory experience, their Ōtepoti based practice works across multispecies histories and futures.

Robyn Maree Pickens is an art writer and poet who lives with her kitten Pippin in Ōtepoti. Her first collection of poetry, published by Otago University Press, will be launched at UBS this August.

Hanahiva Rose is the Assistant Curator of Art at Te Papa and a PhD student in Art History at Victoria University. Her work explores history, memory and imagination, as they are expressed in contemporary art practice.

Nirun runs Saturday 18 March-Saturday 15 July 2023
Hocken Gallery open hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm

Contact details:
Hope Wilson, Curator Art, hope.wilson@otago.ac.nz
Hocken Office: 03 479 8868

Image: Shoulders of Giants (still), 2023, single-channel digital video with sound, 45’05”. Image courtesy of the artist.