At the heart of the exhibition are two major new commissions, AD (2026), by Spong, and Instrument L (Made Rundu) (2026) developed by instrument maker Ryan Nicol in collaboration with musician Lachlan Anderson.
AD (2026), a film shot in Dartmoor National Park in South-West England, takes as its starting point Lord Byron’s unfinished poem Don Juan (1818–1824), in which the story of the heroine Adeline breaks off before it can be resolved. Spong has worked with AI large language models to extend and ‘complete’ Byron’s text, and Adeline returns in this film as a restless and enigmatic presence. The film’s soundtrack by Lachlan Anderson is composed with the newly-commissioned Instrument L (Made Rundu) (2026), developed by instrument maker Ryan Nicol in collaboration with Anderson. It is one of eight instruments in the exhibition that the artist has developed as a personal gamelan orchestra and which will be played during the exhibition’s opening.
The painter-tailor (2019) forms the exhibition’s conceptual starting point. The film focuses on an untitled painting by Spong’s grandfather, I Gusti Made Rundu, and conversations with Spong’s father at the family home in Bali. Within the Balinese Kamasan painting tradition to which Made Rundu returned in his later works, the aun-aun motif expresses the continuous vibration of energy in space. Spong was taught the painting practice by artist Ketut Murki, and in their collaborative work Untitled (aun-aun) (2025), Spong repeatedly draws the motif, methodically pursuing its form through dozens of iterations.
Concerned with how knowledge is encountered, framed, and made perceptible, HA HA HA follows these ideas from well-loved and known early works, from large-scale textile works of silk dyed with Fanta and Coca-Cola, to new sculptural works made for this exhibition including Quarrelling Bees (2026) made from electroplated pomelo skins fitted with contact mics.
Sriwhana Spong: HA HA HA is presented by Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington from 31 October 2026 – 25 March 2027 in partnership with Monash University Museum of Art, MUMA Naarm / Melbourne and is supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, the Henry Moore Foundation, and The Chartwell Trust. The exhibition was curated by Pip Wallis and Melanie Oliver for MUMA, and ran 24 April–28 June 2026, the exhibition is curated by Abby Cunnane for Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery.
Media enquiries
Please contact: Gemma Peacocke (she/her), Kaitaupua Whakapā Communications Coordinator Gemma.Peacocke@vuw.ac.nz
Curator
Abby Cunnane
Exhibition details
Sriwhana Spong: HA HA HA
31 October 2026–25 March 2027
(Summer closedown dates: 21 December 2026–1 February 2027, reopening 2 February 2027)
Free entry
Opening event
5:30–7:30pm Friday 30 October
Free and open to the public
Further information: https://www.adamartgallery.nz/exhibitions/future/ha-ha-ha
About Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery: adamartgallery.nz