In response to George Watson’s exhibition The Choice, Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery will be hosting a reading group session in the exhibition space. Focusing on extracts from Dionne Brand’s book Salvage, Readings from the Wreck (2024),  the discussion will be led by Tendai Mutambu, director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space and Keani Rewha, Te Pia Nahanaha Taonga Intern and the exhibition’s co-curator.

George Watson’s work frequently brings together references to the farm, the villa, and 19th century English literature. This session will expand on Watson’s allusions to colonial literature, and is an opportunity to spend time in discussion of Brand’s distinctive anti-colonial reading of classics, with particular focus on how this may inform our own critical practices as readers in the context of Aotearoa.

The session will be capped at 20 people, and participants will receive a copy of the selected text extract on Wednesday 19 August. You are strongly encouraged to complete the reading prior to the session.

Biographies

Tendai Mutambu is a Zimbabwean-New Zealander curator and writer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He is the current Kaihautū Director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space. Previously based in Spain and the United Kingdom, Mutambu has (co-)curated numerous exhibitions and film programmes including solo presentations by Marwa Arsanios, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, David Clegg, Fiona Connor, Ufuoma Essi, Tanoa Sasraku, Sriwhana Spong, and George Watson. Mutambu has written across several publications, including Ocula Magazine, where he is a contributing editor. He has held programming and editing positions/fellowships at European Media Arts Festival, Doc’s Kingdom, Columbia University’s INCITE Institute, Fridericianum, Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary, CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, Spike Island, LUX Moving Image, Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, London Film Festival, the Govett-Brewster/Len Lye Centre, Artspace Aotearoa, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Keani Rewha is an artist and curator based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Rewha is the 2026 Te Pia Nahanaha Taonga Curatorial Intern at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. He co-curated George Watson’s exhibition The Choice (2026), alongside Abby Cunnane at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. Recent Selected exhibitions include GRWM (Collaborative exhibition, 2026), RM Gallery and Project Space, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; The Grass That Itches My Skin (2025), Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; Thoroughfare (2025), Play_Station Space, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He holds a Master of Visual Arts (First Class Honours, 2025) from Auckland University of Technology.

Dionne Brand is a Trinidadian-Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and activist, living in Toronto. She is best known for her exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and the immigrant experience. Brand was Toronto's third poet laureate from 2009 to 2012. Her books of poetry include No Language Is Neutral (1990), Land to Light On (1997), thirsty (2002), Inventory (2006), Ossuaries (2010), and The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos (2019), all published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart. Her collection Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems (Duke University Press, 2022), won the 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. Salvage, Readings from the Wreck (Macmillan, 2024) is her most recent work in non-fiction.