A Very Different World is a platform to focus on wellbeing and a much-needed glimmer of hope for the future.

Who is not seeking a breath of fresh air? Sparking this idea is a belief in a second chance for humanity.

Innovative and revolutionary ideas are often born out of dire conditions and humanitarian issues.

If creative ideas are the lifeblood of artists, Covid-19 points us to untold opportunities to express forbearance. Experience changes up everything.

Offering this direction is a cadre of intergenerational artists from Aotearoa New Zealand, Tonga, Canada, and Hawaiʻi, with striking photography and painting, never-before-seen sculpture, textiles, ceramic, film and an interactive installation.

About Ngahiraka Mason

Ngahiraka Mason (Tūhoe, Te Arawa, and Ngāti Pango) is an independent curator, critic and visual historian with research and curatorial interests in the material culture and histories of Polynesian peoples and community relationships with museums and collections.

Mason is the former Indigenous Curator, Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Her exhibitions and publications focus on historical, modern, and contemporary art.

Recent projects include Wananga|Wanana (2019) at Bishop Museum, Honolulu; Honolulu Biennial: Middle of Now/Here, the inaugural Honolulu Biennial (2017) and the international touring exhibition Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand (2014–16).

She has published in American Quarterly (2020), and presented at the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM) conference (2019) and at NIRIN, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020).

Mason is a founding trustee of the Wairau Māori Art Gallery Charitable Trust, Whangārei, and a former trustee on the Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust. Mason lives and works in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.

Lisa Boivin, Ventilator for our mother, 2020. Digital collage photograph. Image courtesy of Lisa Boivin.

Russ Flatt, Complicit, 2019. Ilford photo rag. Image courtesy of the artist and Tim Melville Gallery.