Legacies features five short films for cinema by Edith Amituanai, Martin Sagadin, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai (Thai), Pati Tyrell, and Sriwhana Spong. Curated by CIRCUIT’s 2022/23 curator-at-large Dr May Adadol Ingawanij (Thai/UK), the project began with a series of prompts Ingawanij sent to the artists about the potential meaning and resonance of the term ‘Legacies’.

“Legacies as: the pre-modern artistic, cultural, linguistic and religious heritages of the place and land that you were born into and raised in; through to the legacies of colonisation, and the spectres of nations and nationalisms; the legacies of the modern art/film histories; the narratives and ways of knowing that shaped you, and that bring an ambivalence and a desire to undo.”

– May Adadol Ingawanij

Each artist was invited by Ingwanij to make a short film which attempted to articulate the artist’s own personal response to the term. The result is a programme of five new artist works which features a portrait of a young Pasifika matriarch; a reflection on the cinematic history of Thailand; an artist sculpting clay in their studio; an animation based on a Balinese painting made by the artist’s grandfather, and a vivid interpretation of Samoan funeral chants and speeches.

CIRCUIT is a non-profit arts agency that supports New Zealand artists working in the moving image.