A project originally commissioned by Te Tuhi as part of Te Tuhi’s Te Moana Nui ā Kiwa weather station for the global World Weather Network, will be shown in a new iteration at KHŌJ, a leading contemporary art centre in New Delhi, opening on 31 January 2024.

Ngā Raraunga o te Mākū: the data of moisture is an installation visualising data, sounds and images from Haupapa Glacier, Aoraki Mt Cook, live-streamed to KHŌJ in New Delhi. Live weather data recorded by NIWA Taihoro Nukurangi (New Zealand’s Climate, Freshwater and Marine Science Institute) from sensors near the Haupapa glacier are streamed continuously to form a site-responsive installation, based on the physical data of local weather conditions.

The software selects from a set of underwater images of glacial fragments and meltwater. Live hydrophone and atmospheric sound recordings are ordered by qualities of sound and video, decided by the weather conditions of Aoraki. On days of high solar radiation, bright, clear ice and sun predominate and move the images on screen accordingly; on cloudy days, the image darkens.

At the opening event, sound artist/designer Rachel Shearer (Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Pākehā) will also be performing live sound of processed field recordings from Haupapa glacier and other locations from Aotearoa NZ, presented as a collateral event to the India Art Fair at KHŌJ Studios.

Shearer, alongside moving image artist Janine Randerson, and programmer Stefan Marks all travel to India this week to present the work. Ngā Raraunga o te Mākū: the data of moisture will be shown along with other selected works commissioned for the World Weather Network in the exhibition, 28° North and Parallel Weathers, which also includes works by Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani, Raqs Media Collective, Mithu Sen and Atul Bhalla from KHŌJ’s weather station.

28° North and Parallel Weathers is a culmination of KHŌJ’s ‘weather reporting’ project as part of the World Weather Network — a coalition of 28 arts organisations from around the world formed in response to the climate condition that amplifies our understanding of weather and connects artists and lived experiences of weather. The exhibition asks to question:

What worlds open up to us when we think of our bodies as a site for “attuned sensing”?

Ngā Raraunga o te Mākū: the data of moisture and the preceding iterations of the project have benefitted from the assistance of Scientific Advisor Heather Purdie from The University of Canterbury.

Live weather data for the project is courtesy of NIWA Taihoro Nukurangi (New Zealand’s Climate, Freshwater and Marine Science Institute). The collaborators are also grateful to Auckland University of Technology for their support.

Te Tuhi’s participation in the World Weather Network and the commissioning of Haupapa: The Chilled Breath of Rakamaomao is supported by Creative New Zealand and the Contemporary Art Foundation.

The artist projects on the 28° North Parallel weather station have been commissioned by the KHŌJ International Artists’ Association. KHŌJ’s participation in World Weather Network is supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions for Climate Action, a global programme exploring climate change through art, science and digital technology.

The 28° North & Parallel Weathers exhibition is supported by the Takshila Educational Society, India and the British Council’s Creative Commissions for Climate Action.

For more information about Ngā Raraunga o te Mākū: the data of moisture, visit KHŌJ’s website here

IMAGES:
1) Ron Bull, Stefan Marks, Janine Randerson and Rachel Shearer. Ngā Raraunga o te Mākū: the data of moisture, 2024 (still). live data feed courtesy of NIWA. image courtesy of the artists

2) Ron Bull, Stefan Marks, Heather Purdie, Janine Randerson and Rachel Shearer. MĀKŪ, te hā o Haupapa: Moisture, the breath of Haupapa (still), 2023. Commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Image courtesy of the artists