Economies of Deferral

It develops a curatorial inquiry grounded within a region whose ecological and social landscape has been scarred by cyclical logics of “development” and extraction, and sustained by the deferral of these logics’ most violent and far-reaching impacts—on human lives and livelihoods, on lands, seas and waterways, and on the possibility of organising life otherwise. From here, the project expands outwards, and features contributions from artists working across Aotearoa New Zealand, and globally.

The exhibition emerges from new research into the archive of Taranaki-born artist Darcy Lange, who played a foundational role in the development of video art in the United Kingdom and Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside, the exhibition features major new commissions from Fiona Clark, Matthew Galloway and Ngahuia Harrison, and works by Ho Rui An.

The project locates artists within compounding situations of boom and bust to affirm the role they play as witnesses to, advocates against, and complicators of cycles of development, extraction and deferral of consequence, and messengers of new imaginaries.