JustUs

JustUs is a new solo exhibition by Wellington , New Zealand based artist Chevron Hassett. Drawing from his experiences growing up in a state-housing area, Hassett has developed a photographic installation that explores the realities, stereotypes and representations of Māori men in contemporary Aotearoa, New Zealand. Playing off the words of Justice and Just us, this is a series of eight artworks, the figures are pixelated, cuffed and covered in recreated prison uniforms, referencing the statistic of Māori men being eight times more incarcerated than Non-Māori. The clothing worn by these figures makes reference to the uniforms worn by inmates at Rimutaka Men’s Prison, where Hassett's father, family and friends have been incarcerated. Each uniform references negative slurs used towards Māori and is poetically conveying racial stereotypes. Hassett’s is working with photographic tropes used in New Zealand’s news media, art history and ethnographic portraits of Māori, layering visual codes of romanticism, criminalisation and racism of Māori men. In doing so, JustUs highlights how systems of oppression and visual representation have impacted Indigenous lives, sovereignty and autonomy both past and present.