Cruel Optimism

Wishlist

Free entry

Where & When

Tue 01 Feb, 10:00AM
Wed 02 – Sat 05 Feb, 11:00AM, Artspace Aotearoa
Tue 08 – Sat 12 Feb, 11:00AM, Artspace Aotearoa

Full Schedule

Film/Exhibition
Show Type

Festival Event

Wishlist

Free entry

Where & When

Tue 01 Feb, 10:00AM
Wed 02 – Sat 05 Feb, 11:00AM, Artspace Aotearoa
Tue 08 – Sat 12 Feb, 11:00AM, Artspace Aotearoa

Full Schedule

Cruel Optimism' is Artspace Aotearoa's annual New Artists Show for 2021. Lauren Berlant’s seminal book ‘Cruel Optimism’ (2011) has been chosen as a conceptual curatorial substructure for the 2021 new artists programme. Berlant’s pathbreaking scholarship is said to have defined the fields of affect theory, heteronormativity and queer theory. ‘Cruel Optimism’ both as a text but also as a title seeks to offer an open conceptual beginning for artists and writers to respond to. ‘Cruel Optimism’ included seven commissions by artists †sAPEXALTERNATIVECONCUBINE, Connor Fitzgerald, Priscilla Rose Howe, Xi Li, Ming Ranginui, Obadiah Russon, and Anto Yeldezian.

“Cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing. It might involve food, or a kind of love; it might be a fantasy of the good life, or a political project. It might rest on something simpler, too, like a new habit that promises to induce in you an improved way of being. These kinds of optimistic relations are not inherently cruel. They become cruel only when the object that draws your attachment actively impedes the aim that brought you to it initially." — Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Duke University Press, 2011.

The annual new artists programme is a core fundamental of our organisation's kaupapa to advocate for creative innovation within the field of contemporary art in Aotearoa. As an organisation we strive to provide a platform for emerging artists to exhibit and advance their practices with support from the Artspace Aotearoa curatorial and production team.

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Artspace Aotearoa abides by the COVID-19 Protection Framework and checks vaccination passports of people on arrival. Our venue can host up to 100 people who can maintain social distancing, provided they have scanned their vaccine passport.