Asian Aotearoa Arts bears witness to Asian pride
Ar-Em Bañas (they/them)
Being Filipino and having only arrived in Aotearoa this February 2024 to study Design at Massey, I was eager to find a community that I could call my own.
In Massey Wellington’s Engine Room, exhibit New Illuminations celebrated ten years of Asian Aotearoa Arts with the theme of past, present, and future. It featured a diverse group of artists, namely Wai Ching Chan, Tessa Ma’auga, H Y Chai, Xin Cheng, Wailin Elliott, Robbie Handcock, Linda Lee, Ant Sang, Emiko Sheehan, Hanna Shim, and Kathryn Tsui.
Paintings, soft sculpture and video were all featured. The Massey gallery provided ample space to let each piece shine, even providing a reading nook by the entrance so viewers could peruse through a collection of comic and artist books.
Another exhibition, Object to be Restored: On Anarchival and Seven Years of Migrant Zine Collective Exhibition, featured a selection of archived zines as well as graphics and photographs from the Migrant Zine Collective.
The exhibit in the Te Pikitanga Gallery of Massey University Library, focused on the theme of “anarchival in DIY publishing”, questioning which works “deserve” to be archived and how traditional archival practices tend to ignore marginalized voices.
Its content ranged from introspective think-pieces to funny comics to intriguing movie recommendations.
The Mellow Yellow #7 zine resonated with me in particular. I was surprised it was published in 2016, and yet it was still so relatable. The reflections featured here are so honest and raw as the writers share their experiences with misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and the loss of their cultural identities due to (forced) assimilation.
But it also had a lovely letter starting with, “Dear friend who is down about the world and losing hope.” It’s a reminder to keep having faith that things can change despite all the wrong happening around us.
Reading through the Object to be Restored exhibit, a complimentary zine by the founder of the collective, Helen Yeung, is also quite the experience. Yeung talks about her early experience with activism, zine-making, and her work with first-year undergraduate students from Asian diasporic backgrounds.
Yeung wrote of the importance of counter-archiving and anarchiving. She wrote, “The idea of counter-archival challenges what is traditionally understood as nonarchivable: ‘affects, bodies, performances, and embodied events — that which is ephemeral and fleeting.’”
Reading through these zines and viewing the collage posters is a truly inspiring experience as an Asian international student. With that said, I do wish there were more zines that I could look through. The exhibit definitely left me wanting more.
If you have the opportunity, visit an Asian Aotearoa Arts exhibit before May 10th. I highly recommend it.