Lana Lopesi

Commentary
Clocking Off

Clocking Off

For most people, migration is a semi-abstract concept. It’s the fall guy for social issues, the topic of choice for political pundits. For me, it was something I romanticised. Although both of my parents were born in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland I always thought of myself as the child of migrants, as all four of my grandparents were born outside of Aotearoa New Zealand and immigrated here for various reasons at various times. However, it wasn’t until I became a migrant worker myself, after accepting a job in the United States and navigating immigration firsthand, that I realised how difficult moving countries was.

Commentary
Where in the World? Placing New Zealand in the Pacific

Where in the World? Placing New Zealand in the Pacific

“It is a strange fact that New Zealand can be literally all at sea in the Pacific Ocean, and yet pay that ocean, and neighbours and relations within it, so little attention.”
— Damon Salesa, Sāmoan historian

“… this small and very British country is producing some honest and lively artists whose eyes open upon a land not at all like England, but whose minds are formed in the living tradition of Western culture.”
Helen Hitchings, New Zealand gallerist

Commentary
An Undeniable Promise

An Undeniable Promise

There is such a burden of expectation placed on Anne’s painting, and on the exhibition… itself. I feel, like many women painters that she is being asked to prove an undeniable promise. This is unfair.