Touching Grass
Audrey Goggin
Calista Cristobal
Latamai Katoa
Santiago Sanchez
Within this present day capitalist system where everything is made to distract you, yet also inexplicably expertly designed to keep your attention, it is easy to wish there were more hours in a day. Humans have never done more. And the constant stimulation is exhausting.
𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚍. 𝙸 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚍. 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚕𝚞𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍. 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚠𝚕 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚢.
The exhibition Touching grass, counters prior Rerekē exhibition I’ve Never Had an Original Experience, rejecting constant involuntary stimulation and consumption. Touching grass encourages introspection, slowing down, presence, local inspiration, peace and encounter. The exhibition embodies the change and response encouraged by the programme Rerekē.
Artists Audrey Goggin, Calista Cristobal, Latamai Katoa and Santiago Sanchez explore these incentives through different meanings, messages and mediums. Working with natural, organic materials, forms and colours, slow methods of making and personal outcomes.
Exhibition opening Friday 30 October 6–8pm, all welcome.
Exhibition open 31 October–14 November.
Open hours, Thursday 11am–6pm, Saturday 11am–4pm.
Biographies
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Audrey Goggin is a London-born Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist currently in the final year of her BFA at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. Her practice is based primarily in oil paint, using primary source research as a starting point for her layered paintings which explore themes of identity, belonging, and place in relation to her ethnically mixed and immigrant background.
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Calista Cristobal, or Cardinali, is a Filipina artist and writer from Tauranga, currently residing in Tāmaki Makaurau. She studied at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, where she developed a research‑driven approach to material and spatial inquiry. Working across mixed‑media object installation and informed by decolonial thought, she positions desire and devotion as active forces that shape the conditions of our experiences.
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Latamai Katoa is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, whose practice spans installation, moving image, and photography. Drawing on queer and Pasifika experiences, their work explores memory and structures, both physical and socially enacted, examining domestic space, state housing, and inherited histories. Through processes of reconstruction and re-dreaming, Katoa considers how personal and cultural histories remain embedded in the spaces we inhabit.
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Santiago Sanchez is an Argentinian Córdoba and tauiwi artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, completing their undergraduate in Visual Arts at AUT. They hold a diploma in Industrial Design from Toi Rauwhārangi Massey University. Coming from a line of technicians and craftspeople, Sanchez continues this legacy with pride and devotion. Horses de el campo, sawdust and native timbers are cornerstones of their practice. The pieces are intended to be a place to rest, sit, appreciate, and worship the sacred taiao around us.