To mark the final day of this important exhibition, Te Uru brings together contributors to the accompanying publication, Fiona Pardington To See a Face, for a panel discussion exploring themes in the exhibition and throughout her practice.

Moderated by Curator Anja Lückenkemper, the panel brings together Dr Kirsty Baker, Tyson Campbell, Dr Fiona Pardington and Hōhua Thompson.

Join us for what promises to be a rich conversation, offering an opportunity to hear directly from the artist and contributors about the exhibition, and Fiona Paddington’s impressive oeuvre.

Anja Lückenkemper is a curator, researcher and writer from Germany. Her research-driven practice focuses on contemporary art as a site for questioning forms of knowledge and knowledge production, particularly through queer-feminist and decolonial perspectives. She holds a Magister Artium in Philosophy and an MA in Curatorial Studies, and is a current doctoral researcher investigating critical ecologies and more-than-human entanglements at Reading University, UK. Appointed in 2026, she is Kaitiaki | Curator at Te Uru Contemporary Gallery.

Dr Fiona Pardington ONZM (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Clan Cameron of Erracht) is one of Aotearoa’s most significant contemporary photographers. Working from Te Waipounamu, her practice explores emotion, affect and the unseen capacities of photography. Over more than three decades, she has photographed museum taonga and historical objects, including hei tiki and taxidermically preserved manu, exploring ideas of collecting, preservation, memory and the restoration of mana. She has received numerous awards and honours, including the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and an Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 2025 she was promoted to Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography. In 2026, Pardington is representing Aotearoa at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Fiona Pardington was artist in residence at McCahon House Parehuia residency in 2013.

Dr Kirsty Baker came to Aotearoa from Scotland in 2005 and lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, where she is Curator (Toi) at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. Her art writing has been published widely, both nationally and internationally, and she has contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications. In 2024 she published the award-winning book Sight Lines: Women and Art in Aotearoa, which examines the work and influence of women artists within Aotearoa’s art history.

Tyson Campbell (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Maniapoto) is an artist, curator and writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Grounded in mātauranga Māori, his practice explores relationships between people, whenua and systems of knowledge, while challenging European understandings of space and place. Working across performance, drawing, writing and curatorial practice, he considers questions of power and value, and the possibilities of restitution and restoration through Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Hōhua Thompson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti) is a curator, writer and artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He is currently Kaiāwhina Whakāturanga | Assistant Curator at Te Uru Contemporary Gallery, contributing to the development of exhibitions, public programmes and curatorial projects. A graduate of Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, his curatorial practice is concerned with the power and politics of storytelling, with a particular focus on Aotearoa and Indigenous voices.

This event is delivered with the support of McCahon House.