Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Mosaic of Documentation Thumbnails

AA
View Discussion
Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, detail, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Courtesy of the artist Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett

Because no magnifying glass is provided, these minute images remain deeply private, personal tropes for a collective familial experience. Some units are doubled, or lie in clusters linked by subtle variations in light or movement. We see scattered red specks from clothing or snaking lines of blue skies obviously outside.

Pakuranga

 

Charles Buenconsejo
2016-2020, 2020
Curated by Andrew Kennedy

 

5 September - 29 November 2020

Pinned onto the Te Tuhi Drawing Wall, a large sheet of paper, an inkjet print, presents a mosaic haze of thousands of tiny thumbnail photographs, structured in five columns and arranged roughly in monthly blocks. Chronologically this compressed visual record of a Filipino migrant family’s experience in Aotearoa New Zealand starts almost five years ago, that point positioned near the top left-hand corner. Amongst the plethora of shimmering ‘tesserae’ are slivers of white horizontal and vertical lines, setting out a flickering grid that seems about to dissolve.

Charles Buenconsejo and his family here present their documentation of themselves, encountered people and places, though rows and columns of photos that are either butted up or stacked, each individual unit about 1.0 cm square in size, 0.75 cm square, 1.0 x 0.75 cm, or 0.75 x 1.0 cm.

In front of them seems to hover a grey mist, peppered with little flares of chroma. You can detect a matrix but within each modular rectangle there is no consistent pattern of zigzagging lines. The internal structure of each moiré-like block is unique.

Because no magnifying glass is provided, these minute photographic images remain deeply private, personal tropes for a collective familial experience. Some units are doubled, or lie in clusters linked by subtle variations in light or signs of movement. We see scattered red specks from clothing or snaking lines of blue skies obviously outside.

Te Tuhi’s exhibition brochure talks of Charles Buenconsejo experiencing a rearrangement not only of gut bacteria (via a changing diet), and garden soil as a metaphor for requirements needed for an individual’s growth, but also the confidence building of mental processes. These flower through support groups and allies that nurture a cultural reorientation and adaptation—an absorption of new nationally prevalent mores and preoccupations—subtle stuff that would be super hard to detect even if these photographs were greatly enlarged.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Jae Hoon Lee, Mother and Child, 2024, inkjet on smooth pearl. 1500 x 1500 mm

Looking Through (or At) Jae Hoon Lee

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Auckland

 

Jae Hoon Lee
Internal Landscape Part II


16 March 2024 -13 April 2024

JH
Outside installation of part of Shiraz Sadikeen's The Natural Rate, at Treadler. Photo: Alex North.

Sadikeen @ Treadler

TREADLER

Auckland


Shiraz Sadikeen
The Natural Rate


8 March 2024 - 23 March 2024

 

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024