About
On the opening day of Economies of Deferral, hear artists Ngahuia Harrison (Ngātiwai) and Matthew Galloway discuss their newly commissioned projects.
Harrison’s work engages with sites of industry around Whangārei te Rerenga Parāoa (Whangārei Harbour) to examine the complex entanglements between economic dependency, ecological harm and Indigenous authority which saturate this place. Returning in particular to Marsden Point following the termination of its oil refinery operation in 2022, Harrison’s work examines the site’s unresolved place within local memory, and the deferred reckoning of industrial retreat—for workers, mana whenua, and the land and water upon which industry depends.
Matthew Galloway’s new work furthers the artist’s interest in the political and physical infrastructures of energy production and circulation. Galloway’s project considers the lives and afterlives of the 1979 oil crisis, and the Think Big infrastructure projects which sought to secure self-reliance for Aotearoa’s energy needs.
Ngahuia Harrison:
Ngahuia Harrison (Ngātiwai, b. 1988) is an artist and researcher working at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. Harrison’s work explores the impacts of colonial legislation, particularly the loss of land and resources via legislation, and the continuing effect this has had on Māori communities. She works predominantly in photography and video.
Matthew Galloway:
Matthew Galloway (b. 1985) lives and works in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He holds a Doctor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (2025). In 2025 he was a McCahon House Parehuia resident and was selected as the Aotearoa participant for Revolutionary Roads across Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro in association with the Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa. In 2024 his work Empty Vessels was a finalist for the International Circa Art Prize, showing on public screens in London, Berlin and Milan.
He has exhibited widely at many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading contemporary art institutions, including Christchurch Art Gallery, Adam Art Gallery, Hastings Art Gallery, Te Tuhi, Artspace Aotearoa, The Dowse Art Museum and Dunedin Public Art Gallery. His work has also been included in a number of significant international exhibitions, including ei numeroa, Museum of Technology, Finland (2025); Provincia 53. Art, Territory & Decolonization, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; and Melfas Línea orgánica, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Sur, Buenos Aires (both 2017). He was a selected participant in the Cripta747 Studio Program, Turin (2019), and ART Tifariti: After the Future, Art and Human Rights Meeting in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps, Tindouf, Algeria (2016).
Images:
Left: Matthew Galloway, 2024. Photo: Ted Whitaker. Courtesy of the artist. Right: Ngahuia Harrison, Courtesy of the artist.