2 October - 18 October, 2018
Curated by Minnie Parker and Molly Jones, Wallace Arts Trust Summer Interns
Late Night Art (an Artweek event), Tuesday 9 October, 6-8pm
Allpress Gallery
Image: Janet Lilo, Hand (2016) Flatbed full colour print to decoflex fabric, Auckland Festival of Photography Annual Commission 2016, Collection of the Auckland Photography Festival Trust
In the face of precarity, sincerity is the new black. Officially, this new weapon of choice is defined as 'the absence of pretence, deceit, or hypocrisy. 'Earnestness, 'frankness,' 'genuineness, 'goodwill,' 'reliability' and 'truth' are the closest of its linguistic friends. Together they form a collective sentiment currently brewing within New Zealand society: An idealistic and urgent will to better Aotearoa.
In his acclaimed 2017 book, The New Zealand Project, political theorist Max Harris notes the extent to which New Zealanders were feeling increasingly frustrated with the direction our country was taking. The poverty endured by our tamariki, housing or resource management, and incarceration rates are top of his list of causes. Simultaneously, over recent years this stagnancy has ruptured and quaked with waves of unsettling global and local events: Global ideological fissures, the reintroduction of the threat of nuclear arms capabilities, the increasing risks posed by climate change, as well as a turbulent election year and revelation of sharp national political divisions. Straddling an abyss, New Zealanders could not be blamed for feeling melancholy, cynical, hopeless. By contrast, however, this recent sense of precarity seems to have resulted in precisely the opposite, inspiring a new wave of sincerity across the cultural, political and artistic landscape of Aotearoa.
At the heart of this new phenomenon, is a call for aroha to more significantly shape our country's aspirations and actions. 'A love-based politics,' Harris writes, "is an extension, not just an application, of values of care, community and creativity.[1] With practices that extend beyond themselves, the artists included in Yours Sincerely bring the different aspects of a politics of love to life. Each of the works were created with the intention of bettering the world we inhabit, choosing to embrace idealism rather than cringe at the term. By bringing them into conversation with one another, the exhibition aims to showcase how our artists are navigating the current contemporary moment and puts forth an invitation to celebrate sincerity.
Sincerity can take many forms. It can be as quiet and simple as smiling eyes handing you a cup of tea, a slightly fumbled but nonetheless spirited attempt to speak in another's language, or, in the case of Edith Amituanai, the handing over of a camera to a child who has not yet seen themselves reflected. But you can also hear it radiating through angered pleas for change, or see it in Janet Lilo's bold raising of an open palm into empty air. Although the combination may seem contradictory. Yours Sincerely demonstrates how both the quiet and the loud can be combined to inform how we imagine Aotearoa's future.
[1] Max Harris, The New Zealand Project, Bridget Williams Books, 2017, p.171.