A working week: Hanzi letterpress at Enjoy Public Art Gallery

On the local front, we hosted visits and took the project into the world via articles and artist talks.

Group of people around a table filled with type
Research assistant Ya-Wen Ho demonstrates hand-setting type at Enjoy Public Art Gallery

In September, the Asian Aotearoa Arts Hui catalysed a flurry of activity.

Emma Ng, author of Old Asian, New Asian, was inspired by the types and wrote a moving article, which, in turn, inspired historian Joanna Boileau to visit the type collection and discuss New Zealand Chinese material culture.

In her adjacent role as writer-in-residence at Enjoy Public Art Gallery’s exhibition A Working Week, Ya-Wen gave several talks as well hands-on letterpress print-making engagements, in which a tiny handful of Chinese type in her private collection became tactile advocates of its cousins here at Wai-te-ata Press.