Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Mosaic of Documentation Thumbnails

AA
View Discussion
Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, detail, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Courtesy of the artist Charles Buenconsejo, 2016 – 2020, 2020 (installation view) digital inkjet print, commissioned by Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett

Because no magnifying glass is provided, these minute images remain deeply private, personal tropes for a collective familial experience. Some units are doubled, or lie in clusters linked by subtle variations in light or movement. We see scattered red specks from clothing or snaking lines of blue skies obviously outside.

Pakuranga

 

Charles Buenconsejo
2016-2020, 2020
Curated by Andrew Kennedy

 

5 September - 29 November 2020

Pinned onto the Te Tuhi Drawing Wall, a large sheet of paper, an inkjet print, presents a mosaic haze of thousands of tiny thumbnail photographs, structured in five columns and arranged roughly in monthly blocks. Chronologically this compressed visual record of a Filipino migrant family’s experience in Aotearoa New Zealand starts almost five years ago, that point positioned near the top left-hand corner. Amongst the plethora of shimmering ‘tesserae’ are slivers of white horizontal and vertical lines, setting out a flickering grid that seems about to dissolve.

Charles Buenconsejo and his family here present their documentation of themselves, encountered people and places, though rows and columns of photos that are either butted up or stacked, each individual unit about 1.0 cm square in size, 0.75 cm square, 1.0 x 0.75 cm, or 0.75 x 1.0 cm.

In front of them seems to hover a grey mist, peppered with little flares of chroma. You can detect a matrix but within each modular rectangle there is no consistent pattern of zigzagging lines. The internal structure of each moiré-like block is unique.

Because no magnifying glass is provided, these minute photographic images remain deeply private, personal tropes for a collective familial experience. Some units are doubled, or lie in clusters linked by subtle variations in light or signs of movement. We see scattered red specks from clothing or snaking lines of blue skies obviously outside.

Te Tuhi’s exhibition brochure talks of Charles Buenconsejo experiencing a rearrangement not only of gut bacteria (via a changing diet), and garden soil as a metaphor for requirements needed for an individual’s growth, but also the confidence building of mental processes. These flower through support groups and allies that nurture a cultural reorientation and adaptation—an absorption of new nationally prevalent mores and preoccupations—subtle stuff that would be super hard to detect even if these photographs were greatly enlarged.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Selina Foote, Berthe, 2025, acrylic and graphite on canvas, 600 x 500 mm

Foote’s Balustrades

TWO ROOMS

Selina Foote

 

The Balcony

 

15 August - 27 September 2025

JH
Tony de Lautour, Black Mountain 2 2025, acrylic on canvas, 750 x 1000mm

Obliterated Titular Language

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Tony de Lautour

 

Location

 

26 July - 23 August 2025

JH
Richard Killeen, Catspiralcatspiral (9458), 2025, Ink jet and Bona Mega Matt varnish on ACM, 1000 x 480mm

Containing Meaning

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Richard Killeen

 

Jar

 

26 July - 23 August 2025

JH
Steve Carr, Many Steves, 2025, pigment inkjet print; diptych each 1524 x 1016mm unframed, 1550 x 1045 x 35mm framed, 1550 x 2090mm framed overall Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof

Chortle Chuckle Carr

GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY

Steve Carr

 

How to Disappear

 

30 July - 23 August 2025