George Watson & Tyson Campbell

GEORGE WATSON was born in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa and affiliated to Ngāti Porou, Moriori and Ngāti Mutunga Iwis, George Watson graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from Elam school of Fine Arts in 2016. George has recently returned to Tāmaki Makaurau after completing the Maumaus Independent Study Programme in Lisboa, Portugal in 2019.

TYSON CAMPBELL has worked as an artist, writer, community facilitator and independent curator based in Naarm Melbourne and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Over the last two years, through his involvement with Blak Dot gallery, TCB art inc, and Artspace Aotearoa, Tyson developed an emerging curatorial practice that centres contemporary Indigenous artistic practices. Tyson’s current work focuses on Indigenous strategies toward shifting institutional structures and how culturally grounded and communitarian ways of knowing - conversational, (anti-) celebratory, and respectful kanohi-kitea - can initiate change within such settings. Tyson is interested in cultural mechanisms that move us away from the polarised dichotomy of Indigeneity and institutional critique and from representation as a determining ideology in contemporary art discourse.

Ko Ngatokimatawhaorua te waka
Ko Tarakeha te maunga
Ko Moetangi te awa
Ko Te Rarawa te iwi
Ko Taomaui te hapū
Ko Matihetihe te marae
Ko Tūmoana te whare
Ko Rihari Kamira toku tupuna Papa

Ko Tainui te waka
Ko Pirongia te maunga
Ko Mangapu te awa
Ko Ngati Maniapoto te iwi
Ko Ngati Kinohaku te hapū
Ko Waipatoto te whare
Ko Oparure te marae
Ko Te Raurangi Hohepa toku tupuna whaea.