This year marks the return of the TarraWarra International series with TarraWarra International 2026: System Release. Curated by Dr Emily Cormack (Aotearoa New Zealand and Naarm/Melbourne), the exhibition brings together ten artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, and Mexico whose practices explore how we make sense of a world shaped by instability, uncertainty, and global precarity.
Working across sculpture, installation, moving image, and assemblage, the artists in System Release examine the structures—ecological, technological, cultural, and social—that influence contemporary life. Rather than proposing fixed solutions or stable frameworks, the exhibition embraces complexity and contradiction, suggesting that new forms of understanding may emerge through openness, experimentation, and collective thinking. Here, order is imagined not as control but as a form of ‘friendship with chaos’: a way of working with uncertainty rather than resisting it.
Drawing on perspectives grounded in First Nations knowledge, collective intelligence, and posthuman and more-than-human worldviews, System Release invites audiences to consider alternative systems of knowledge and ways of being. Throughout the exhibition, artists respond to shifting environments, evolving technologies, and planetary concerns, offering works that oscillate between speculation and material inquiry. Together, these practices propose new modes of sensing, organising, and imagining futures beyond dominant systems of power and production. Participating artists in TarraWarra International 2026: System Release include Daniel Boyd, Francis Carmody, Megan Cope, José Dávila, Alicia Frankovich, Marco Fusinato, Nikau Hindin, Nicholas Mangan, Dane Mitchell, and Shannon Te Ao.
The exhibition is complemented by a vibrant series of public programs that build on the ideas explored in the galleries, starting with System Release: Artist Talks Series 1 on Saturday, 21 March 2026 (1–3 pm). Curator Dr Emily Cormack will be joined by artists Nikau Hindin (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, and Ngāi Tūpoto), Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Wairangi, and Te Pāpaka-a-Māui), Alicia Frankovich, and Francis Carmody in a discussion that reflects on their practices and the concepts shaping the exhibition. This session offers audiences the chance to hear directly from the artists about their approaches to material thinking, evolving contexts, and the experimental processes underlying their work.
During the April school holidays, families and young visitors are invited to participate in Draw, Design, Fly on Thursday, 9 April 2026 (11 am and 2 pm). Inspired by Nikau Hindin’s exploration of traditional Māori kite-making practices, this hands-on workshop encourages participants aged 6–14 to design and build their own manu tukutuku (kites), linking cultural knowledge with creative experimentation.
Music and improvisation feature prominently in Order is just Friendship with Chaos on Saturday, 11 April 2026 (2 pm). Exploring the tensions between imposed and improvised elements, this live performance assembles eight musicians to explore ideas of structure, spontaneity, and collective expression.
The program also includes workshops and discussions with BLAK Environment—a collective of First Nations architects, designers, and educators committed to fostering a national dialogue about design practices rooted in Country. On Sunday, 26 April 2026 (2 pm), the session invites audiences to explore how future built environments might develop from Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural frameworks through discussion and shared learning.
Images: Marco Fusinato, DESASTRES dlce34aza7o1pjlcet7q.jpg, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and PALAS, Sydney | Nikau Hindin, Manu Taua Flight as Fight, Manu Taua V, Flight as Fight, 2023. Photo Manu Aute | José Dávila, Esfuerzo Común, 2022. Photo: Agustín Arce | Dane Mitchell, Remembering and Forgetting Venn, 2015. Photo: Christopher Morris | Nicholas Mangan, A World Undone, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney.
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