Parasite
2020–2022

448 Karangahape Road
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Aotearoa New Zealand

Parasite was founded in February 2020 by DJCS in response to ongoing debates around the absence of LGBTTQIA+ art and artists within public art institutions. These questions of representation were reignited in 2019 after DJCS revealed that only 0.06% of the Auckland Art Gallery’s digitised collection was tagged as LGBTTQIA+ related. The findings went viral on social media, sparking widespread discussion about the politics of visibility in cultural institutions.

Conceived as both a site of institutional critique and an experiment in new modes of presentation, Parasite positioned queer culture within broader conversations on everyday socio-political life. The gallery was located in the three-story staircase of DJCS private residence on Karangahape Road.

Parasite hosted critically recognised solo exhibitions by Tash Keddy, Ali Senescall, Aliyah Winter, Nayan Patel, Owen Connors, Cao Xun, Obadiah Russon, p Walters, Laura Duffy, and Deborah Rundle. It also published Samuel Te Kani’s first novella, Daddy, and presented projects at May Fair Art Fair (2020) and the Auckland Art Fair (2021).

On My Volcano Grows the Grass
Deborah Rundle
23 July 2021

Maybe someone is starting to bloom
Laura Duffy
25 June 2021

New World Daughter; a sterile sermon on the vile waha of a fuckin' leitī
p Walters
30 May 2021

Splitting Lips, Limbs and Eyes
Obadiah Russon
23 April 2021

Command & Conquer: The Covert Sculpture
Xun Cao
26 March 2021

Salon De La Mort
Owen Connors, Nayan Patel, Aliyah Winter
24 February 2021

For Future Breeders
Owen Connors
20 November 2020

Still Life
Nayan Patel
16 October 2020

Daddy
Samuel Te Kani
21 October 2020

HYPNO.MATRIX
Aliyah Winter
18 September 2020

On Rat Bones
Tash Keddy, Ali Senescall, Samuel Te Kani
6 August 2020

As Above So Below
Ali Senescall
31 July 2020

Grindhouse
Tash Keddy
21 February 2020