Resetting the Coordinates

The first anthology/reader of performance art of Aotearoa New Zealand, Resetting the Coordinates offers a lively, 50-year critical survey of Aotearoa New Zealand's globally unique performance art scene. From the post-object and performance art of the late 1960s to the rich vein of Maori and Pacific performance art from the early 1990s, its 18 chapters by researchers and practitioners is a major reference for art and performance communities of New Zealand, Australia and further afield. It discusses the influential work of Jim Allen, Phil Dadson, Peter Roche and Linda Buis, performance art initiatives in post-earthquake Christchurch and queer performance art, among many other topics.

‘It is a fascinating book with lots of performances which have been rarely written about, seemingly lost to history but which tell us much about the social, political and spiritual examinations and soundings which artists have made.’ – John Daly-Peoples, NZ Arts Review

‘Kudos to the editors for assembling an anthology equal parts provocative, fascinating and necessary’ — Theo Macdonald, North & South

Christopher Braddock, artist and writer, is professor of visual arts in the School of Art & Design, Auckland University of Technology. He is director doctoral studies and co-leads the Art & Performance Research Group. He has written extensively on performance art in Aotearoa. He is author of Performing Contagious Bodies: Ritual participation in contemporary art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and editor of Animism in Art and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). His performance and installation works have been included in Public Relations at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, curated by Simon Gennard (2022); How to Live Together at ST PAUL St Gallery, curated by Balamohan Shingade (2019); and Material Traces: Time and the gesture in contemporary art, curated by Amelia Jones in Montréal (2013). Key research terms include: animism, dialogue, silence, contagion, material trace, ritual, spirituality, performance and participation. Chris lives in Auckland. See

Victoria Wynne-Jones, art historian and curator, is an honorary research fellow in art history at the School of Humanities at the University of Auckland. She currently lectures in the disciplinary areas of art history, fine arts and dance studies, and collaborates with artists on written commissions and exhibition-making. Her research focuses on the intersections between dance studies and performance art as well as curatorial practice, feminisms, contemporary art theory and philosophy. She is author of Choreographing Intersubjectivity in Performance Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), part of the series ‘New World Choreographies’.

Layne Waerea (Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Kahungunu) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist and educator whose practice involves carrying out performance art interventions that seek to question and challenge social and legal ambiguities in the public sphere. As a former lawyer and lecturer in law, Waerea uses this experience to inform her performance interventions, with a particular focus on how Te Tiriti o Waitangi could continue to play a critical role in the developing cultural fabric of Aotearoa. In 2016 Waerea completed her PhD at Auckland University of Technology, titled ‘Free Social Injunctions: Art interventions as agency in the production of socio-legal subjectivities not yet imagined or realised’.

Ioana Gordon-Smith (New Zealand/Sāmoa) is an arts writer and curator. She has held roles at Artspace Aotearoa, Objectspace, Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery and Pātaka Art + Museum. Gordon-Smith is a co-curator of the international Indigenous triennial Naadohbii: To draw water in Canada, and together with Lana Lopesi is the co-founder and co-editor of Marinade: Aotearoa journal of Moana art. She is a trustee for Enjoy Contemporary Art Space. Consistent throughout her curatorial process is a priority on close working relationships with artists. She lives in Porirua.

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