Over the last three years we have seen a popularity hike in the use of risograph as the print material supplementary to New Zealand Contemporary Art. It’s almost saturated the design market, at one stage seeming like a template to exhibition ephemera. It’s attractive for obvious reasons, it’s tactile, cheap and perfect for mass production. Most importantly, I think the attraction in the form was a desire to retract to manual print processes, almost nostalgic. The ‘digital screen print’ production allows a nature of layering and urgency, deeply embedded within political image making. James Cousins’ Restless Idiom at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery speaks design language. The 15 paintings ranging in sizes but mostly large all include a reproduced image (originally a photograph) and on top of that are contradictory abstract layers. Cousins employs various methods of layering – geometric stencils, floral arrangements, rolled paint – to create a dynamic image on a single painted plain. While the reproduced image is clearly there for a reason, deciphering exactly what it is, feels less important. Through the …

Luke Willis Thompson’s found objects carry heavy baggage. They are loaded with association, either tracing personal connections or significant events. One such example is Yaw (RM Gallery, 2011) which assembled two objects from within his personal orbit, and with them opened a doorway to big issues of racism, slavery and the holocaust. Sucu Mate/ Born Dead is made up of nine unmarked gravestones standing in a row, cutting across the gallery floor. The wall text informs us that the anonymous headstones come from a colonial sugar plantation cemetery in Fiji for both the workers and managers. Immediately flags are raised regarding indentured labour, and indeed the value placed on both life and labour. Issues of racism and segregation rear their ugly heads. In the place of slavery came exploitation and the abuse of cheap ‘coolie’ labour: neo-slavery. We are confronted with a history that we may prefer to forget. Are the stones anonymous because no one bothered to name them? Or have any traces simply worn away with time, and records been lost? David Joselit argues …

Mahābhūta: The Great Element was a solo show by Tiffany Singh at Uxbridge, a former site for a Presbyterian Church in Howick, and Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple in Flat Bush. Both exhibitions under the same name acted like sister shows, in very different settings. From the outset, and typical of Singh’s practice, this was an exhibition centered on multiplicity; multiple sites, installations, objects, traditions and ethnicities, a multi-sensory exhibition reflecting on the natural environment. And there are multiple things at stake for this social practitioner. The exhibition at Uxbridge included small sculptural works, films made with Robert George, a sound piece by Steven Berry, posters by The Kauri Project and The River of Verses, an installation of phrases painted around the entire circumference of the gallery. The phrases, which included proverbs and poetry on nature, were painted by local individuals and community groups, including schools and members of local iwi. The exhibition at Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple, similarly, was made up of various sculptural works, drawings, installations and a film. Uxbridge, as a …