Fresh from designing the costumes for Nathan Joe and Jane Yonge’s provocative and visually arresting theatrical production, Scenes from a Yellow Peril, we are excited to host multidisciplinary artist Steven Junil Park for an Ockham Lecture.

Park’s lecture will examine the roots of why he makes and how this has become his language for understanding the world as a Korean-born New Zealander. Park will discuss the making of han (한), his contribution to our current exhibition in the Ockham Gallery, twisting, turning, winding, takatāpui + queer objects and reflect on the fact that this is the first work he has made where he has directly addressed queerness.

Park will offer his understanding of the cultural complexities of the body in relation to clothing and how they can reflect the internal politics of self-identity.

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Steven Junil Park is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Ōtautahi, working under the name 6x4. Under this label he produces all manner of functional objects with a focus on clothing and textiles. These one-off pieces feature recycled, repurposed, or vintage materials; valuing resourcefulness and the memory of materials. As a queer, Korean-born New Zealander he explores identity and selfhood through his practice. His work is a language for things that he cannot articulate otherwise, connecting to the intangible and indefinable. Making objects is one of the things that define us as a species, and Steven Junil Park is making things in a world of excess to search for the richness of being human, the things that connect us.