Curated by Abhi Chinniah
Strand Arcade, Queen Street, Auckland CBD | 8 - 21 June, 2024

“Why are you leaving?” explores the permanent or fleeting emotions experienced when parting from places and people we consider home, comfort, or the tether that keeps us whole. This group exhibition presents contemporary art that looks into the transformations we experience as we go through the motions of our changing selves and journeys.

“Why are you leaving?” is a peripheral glimpse into our lives, utilising paintings, collage, sculpture, installation, ceramics and photography to tell our stories.

ARTWORK

Are you free or just existing?, Lucie Blaze, 2024
$300 each

Each time I leave my country of origin, the Czech Republic, I experience mixed emotions: sadness from leaving my family and relief from escaping a nation burdened by its past. Over the last four generations, we've lived under various political regimes that left behind limiting mental and social constructs, intergenerational trauma, and a certain rigidity.

When I return home, I’m met with a hostile energy towards anything foreign, and I struggle not to shrink into an invisible version of myself. It takes a great deal of effort to stay true to who I am when I travel back to my country. Now, I recognize this collective energy that makes me feel suffocated and small.

Okiokinga, Julia Iti Prendergast, 2024
NFS
For further information contact, juliaitiprendergast.com

I'd never been to Kāwhia, despite living 30 minutes away and placing its name in my pepeha since I could recite it. Returning home, after living in Australia for most of my life, was much more intimate than having tea and cake with aunties whose names I had forgotten and finding an affordable rental. It was sitting in the shore where my moana blankets my whenua and introducing myself. This wakahuia (a vessel to hold taonga) is made solely of the sands I've touched at Kāwhia. It cradles and protects the water I've bathed in - water not clean nor dirty, but a bearer of my tinana and memories. Kāwhia is the okiokinga (resting place) of the Tainui waka and the okiokinga of myself.

Raku Blue, Raku Orange {SOLD}, Porcelain Blue, Porcelain Lavender, Yeonjae Choi, 2024
$850 each

These are my last artworks made in New Zealand before my impending immigration to Melbourne.
They hold a lot of my stress and anticipation for this new chapter in my life.

Wishing all the best, Orimi, 2024
{SOLD}

My Wish, Orimi, 2024
$1100

As someone who has lived in New Zealand longer than their birth country, I don't really have the concept of 'longing for a hometown' nor the fact that I'm an immigrant, within me. But there have been times in my life when someone has left. In this topic of "Why are you leaving?" I found myself naturally inclined to think more from the perspective of the one who's left behind rather than the one who has left. Whether it is to another city, country, or even taking a last breath in its life. I believe there is a common sentiment from the perspective of the ones left behind. All the hope, best wishes, and yearning for their loved ones and their new journey. Depending on how much you've adored the one who left, these feelings and thoughts can linger for aeon of time. I've tried to encapsulate such sentiments in the works: if there's someone who left, there's someone left behind. In this world where we can't live alone, everyone has someone dear to them in memory. Conversely, someone is dear to someone else's memory. Regardless of where they've gone, we all have someone dear to us, and we're all dear to someone else.

These works are for those left behind. "I've tried to capture the hearts of those who miss with love. I hope these works well represent the hearts of those left behind, remaining, waiting.

Head, heart and sole, Lindsey Horne, 2024
$1200 each

As a figurative and portrait artist, I have depicted the migrant experience through the human body. The chest and head paintings of my parents represent the emotional and rational aspects of deciding to move our family and life to a new country - a head and heart decision. The sculpted feet reflect the significance of where one lays down roots and feels grounded, but also where one chooses to be buried or laid to rest.

Abhirami Kanagalingam, Abhi Chinniah, 2024
Images are available to view on request

Abhirami 1/3 limited edition, $480
Kanagalingam 1/3 limited edition, $480

MEET THE ARTISTS

This exhibition was made possible with support from: