Navigating Slowly

Curated by Noel Meek with support from CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, Navigating Slowly is a screening of eight video works by Aotearoa artists using moving images to choreograph new temporal relations with whenua, whakapapa, and our changing ecological world. Featuring: Sione Faletau, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Janine Randerson, James Tapsell-Kururangi, Nat Tozer, Noel Meek, Jake Kīanō Skinner, Sriwhana Spong, and Ana Iti.

Navigating Slowly interrogates our relationships with whenua by demonstrating forms of traversal that are slow, that are circuitous or circular, that give still time to place, seeking out new knowledge in the land via reversals, retreats, returns, and hauntings. The programme brings together contemporary artists from Aotearoa who share a meditative approach in their visual practice that runs counter to the accelerated narratives of colonialism and capitalism. The works sit with whenua, telling tales of travel, whakapapa, geology, language, and wairua.

Noel Meek is an artist and composer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara with a practice that explores relations with the more-than-human through time-based works. He says: "This programme gathers together some of my favourite artworks of the last decade, but I hope it also gives the audience a guide to what I see as common features in local moving image works. Whether it’s Jeremy Leatinu’u’s narrative palindrome of language and migration, Nat Tozer’s meditation on manmade geology, James Tapsell-Kururangi’s familial portrait, or Sriwhana Spong’s saturated dream of Tuscany, these works all share a close attention to time and place, a pace that gives us room for considered thought, and a great generosity of beauty and spirit.”

Presented in association with Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival 2026. This programme is supported by CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image.

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Programme details:

1. Sione Faletau: Navigation (2021) 3:51
2. Jeremy Leatinu'u: Mai ite kei o te waka (2018) 7:54
3. Janine Randerson: Waiho, Retreat (2017) 3:19
4. James Tapsell-Kururangi: A Portrait with my Father (2022) 9:59
5. Nat Tozer: Footpath Fossil (breath) (2020) 5:06
6. Noel Meek and Jake Kīanō Skinner: Rua Kōhatu | Two Stones (2023) 7:45
7. Sriwhana Spong: Badlands (2023) 7:36
8. Ana Iti: All the way to Te Rerenga Wairua (2017) 4:00