Tagged Politics

Asia New Zealand politics, cultural politics

Asian food

In search of real Asian fusion

SHARON LAM | In this next instalment dedicated to food, writer and architectural graduate Sharon Lam reflects on the nature of fusion food and asks whether an Asian New Zealand fusion cuisine exists.

Mass grave at Blitar, East Java. Part of the Mass Grave Project, ongoing. Photo by FX Harsono

In conversation with FX Harsono

AISHA JOHAN | FX Harsono is a leading figure within the Indonesian contemporary art scene. Over the past four decades, his work has developed against the backdrop of the rise and fall of the Soeharto regime, through revolution and reformation. On the eve of Jakarta’s election, which have incited simmering racial and religious tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim country, Harsono’s practice resonates with the national search for plurality. Aisha Johan caught up with the artist to talk…

FX Harsono, Pilgrimage to History, 2013

In conversation with FX Harsono (English Translation)

AISHA JOHAN | I am very drawn to one of your works, Pilgrimage to History, 2013. I feel that you are giving a voice to those who no longer have one, from mass grave to mass audience. Could you please tell me more about the work? FX Harsono: In the beginning, I started this project about the genocide and mass grave that I had found out about in Blitar, a city where I was born and raised…

A Sleeping Project

KAORU KODAMA | On 16 November 2016, there were protests on the Auckland waterfront. New Zealand Defence Industry Association’s 19th Defence Industry Forum was planned to take place at the Viaducts Events Centre, however, having one of the world’s largest nuclear arms manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, as its main sponsor, and described by activist organisations as a weapons exposition…

Artist John Young Zerunge. Image courtesy of John Young Studio

In conversation with John Young Zerunge

AMY WENG | John Young Zerunge is an Australian-Chinese artist and one of the co-founders and founding president of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney. An initiative formed by the Asian Australian Artists’ Association in 1996, 4A has become a leading art institution in Australia, encouraging dialogue on Asian and Australian cultural relations, and…

Te Tiriti o Waitangi – an unmet challenge

AMY WENG | In trying to trace a collective history, I’ve come to the realisation that ours is a lot more incidental- filled with stops and starts- a non-linear digression through over a century and a half of co-habitation, but not necessarily of occupation. Where Asian New Zealanders have a stake in the political and public…

In conversation with Vera Mey

AMY WENG | Vera Mey is an independent curator. The following is a except of a conversation between Mey and HAINAMANA editor Amy Weng. Here, they talk umbrella identities and redefining a position of alterity…

Notes from the third space

Notes towards a third space: On a prevailing easterly wind

AMY WENG | In 1992, on the corner of Wellesley and Kitchener Street, on the southern facade of what was then the Old Art Gallery, a lighted window containing an ink painted backdrop and elongated rosary was installed. Four calligraphic characters were painted on its face, and this window changed- illuminating and dimming according to the hour of the day…