Abigail Aroha Jensen and Tamsen Hopkinson
Bootleg
05 Jul — 24 Aug
Abigail Aroha Jensen, working image, 2025.
Bootleg: Abigail Aroha Jensen and Tamsen Hopkinson
05.07.25–24.08.25
Mihi whakatau and opening celebration on 04.07.2025 at 5.30pm
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Bootleg is an exhibition about production and transmission beyond sanctioned channels: concealed objects, attempted translation, unauthorised sound, items taken and distributed at night, nocturnal documents, a break-in.
By way of accumulation and disassembly, Abigail Aroha Jensen and Tamsen Hopkinson deal with how theft is inscribed in the land and materials abandoned to it. Activities like looting, copying, and discarding are familiar modes of relating to the conditions of the contemporary. Both artists in Bootleg engage with this incessant continuum of sonic and physical debris that scores the present, to produce tactile tools that transmute such inherited systems and expectations of behaviour.
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Abigail Aroha Jensen is an artist who lives in Ngāruawāhia, Waikato. She holds a BMA from Waikato Institute of Technology, and Honours from Toihoukura, School of Māori Visual Arts. Recent exhibitions include Rope Play (I-IV), sites across Aotearoa including Tāmaki Makaurau, Pōneke, Heretaunga, Ōtepoti, Kirikiriroa, Köln, Germany and Busan Biennale in South Korea (2022-24); Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2023); Glittering Images, Grace Aotearoa (2024); Inside my papahou: puoro tuatini. Her site, Désirée – ā whakamātao owha co-commissioned by Te Tuhi and the Busan Biennale Organising Committee, South Korea (2024); cab-sous vide, The Dowse Art Museum, curated by Felixe Lainge (2024); and What thrives on these soils, at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga, Hastings Art Gallery (2025).
Tamsen Hopkinson (b.1986, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pāhauwera) is an artist and curator from Aotearoa based in Naarm. She is interested in systems of measurement, language and the fraught application of these systems to ideas of sovereignty and agency. Tamsen completed a BFA (hons) / BA majoring in Painting, Art History and Philosophy from University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts (2010). Recent exhibitions include The Wishing Well, CONNORS CONNORS (2024), Signal Detection, Mejia (2024), Octopus 23: THE FIELD, Gertrude Contemporary (2023), and Open Glossary with James Nguyen, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (2023).
Te mihi whakatau me te hui whakatuwhera i tū i te 04.07.2025 i te 5.30pm
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Ko Bootleg tētahi whakaaturanga mō ngā momo whakaputanga me ngā momo whakawhitinga kāore nei i te whai i ngā ara e whakaaetia ana: he rawa kua hunaia, he ngana ki te whakamāori, he oro kāore i te whakaaetia, he rawa kua whānakohia, kua tiria hoki i te pō, he kōnae nō te pō, he urutomokanga.
Mā roto mai i te kohikohi me te wāwāhitanga, ka whakapuaki whakaaro a Abigail Aroha Jensen rāua ko Tamsen Hopkinson mō te āhua o te tuhia o te whānakotanga ki ngā hītori o te whenua me ngā rawa kua whakarērea iho i reira. Ko ngā mahi, pēnei i te pāhua, i te tārua whānako, i te rukenga, he ara kāore nei i te hou e hāngai ana ki ngā āhuatanga o nāianei. Kōrero ai te tokorua nei mō tēnei tūāwhiorangi mōrihariha e karioi ana o ngā kotakota pāorooro, o ngā kotakota kikokiko hoki e hao nei i te inamata, e heipū mai ai ngā rawa ringapā e panoni nei i ngā pūnaha tuku iho me ngā kawatau o ngā whanonga.
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He ringatoi a Abigail Aroha Jensen e noho ana ki Ngāruawāhia, ki Waikato. He BMA tōna nō Waikato Institute of Technology, me tētahi tāhū paetahi nō Toihoukura. Ko ētahi o ana whakaaturanga o nā tata nei, ko Rope Play (I-IV) i ētahi wāhi puta i Aotearoa, tae atu ki Tāmaki Makaurau, ki Pōneke, ki Heretaunga, ki Ōtepoti, ki Kirikiriroa, ki Köln i Tiamana, ki Busan Biennale hoki i Kōrea ki te Tonga (2022-24); ko Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa i Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2023); ko Glittering Images i Grace Aotearoa (2024); ko Inside my papahou: puoro tuatini. Her site, Désirée – ā whakamātao owha i tonoa ai e Te Tuhi me te Busan Biennale Organising Committee i Kōrea ki te Tonga (2024); ko cab-sous vide i The Dowse Art Museum i rauhītia ai e Felixe Lainge (2024); me What thrives on these soils i Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga (2025).
He ringatoi, he kairauhī hoki a Tamsen Hopkinson (i whānau i te 1986, nō Ngāti Kahungunu, nō Ngāti Pāhauwera hoki) nō Aotearoa, ā, e noho ana ki Naarm. E ngākaunui ana ia ki ngā pūnaha ine, ki ngā pūnaha reo, me te whakahāngai tahitanga o ēnei pūnaha ki ngā ariā o te tino rangatiratanga me te mana motuhake. I whakatutuki a Tamsen i tētahi tāhū paetahi BFA / BA e aronui nei ki te Peita, ki te Hītori o te Toi, ki te Tautake hoki i te Elam School of Fine Arts o Waipapa Taumata Rau (2010). Ko ētahi o ana whakaaturanga o nā tata nei, ko The Wishing Well i CONNORS CONNORS (2024), ko Signal Detection i Mejia (2024), ko Octopus 23: THE FIELD i Gertrude Contemporary (2023), me Open Glossary i te taha o James Nguyen i te Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (2023).