11 Mar 2026
For three months, Sydney will host the 25th Biennale of Sydney, marking a milestone for one of the region’s leading contemporary art platforms, known for commissioning and presenting thought-provoking work from Australia and around the world.
Among this year’s featured artists is New Zealand Benjamin Work (Tongan/Scottish – Ha‘a Lātūhifo/Orkney). Benjamin will present a new sculptural work and deliver an artist talk, bringing his material practice and ancestral narratives to an international audience. His work explores genealogy, land, memory and the movement of Pacific peoples, themes that sit closely with this year’s curatorial theme of Rememory.
Benjamin is excited for the opportunity to be a part of this year’s biennale.
“I feel grateful to work alongside Artist Director, Hoor Al Qasimi, who is a powerhouse in the art world and is very supportive of artists to tell their stories from around the globe. The Sydney Biennale is a major international platform, which throughout the years has included selected artists from Aotearoa New Zealand,” Benjamin says.
Hoor Al Qasimi, Artistic Director, says this year’s theme is as an invitation to become active participants in our shared stories.
“Rememory connects the delicate space between remembering and forgetting, delving into the fragmented and forgotten parts of history, where recollection becomes an act of reassembling fragments of the past—whether personal, familial, or collective. Through the defiant act of sharing, seeing, and understanding, the artists and cultural practitioners I’ve invited to participate explore the hidden effects of history and how it continues to shape the present in an evolving and consuming conversation. Rather than focusing on linear storytelling, I hope to highlight how we can become active participants in retelling our collective stories by revisiting and reinterpreting past events.”
Makerita Urale, Creative New Zealand’s Senior Manager, Pacific Arts, considers this is another breakthrough for Pacific arts on the world stage.
‘It was amazing to meet the inspiring Hoor Al Qasimi with Benjamin and hear about her vision for the Biennale this year. Hoor is one of the most globally significant visionaries in the contemporary art world and this will be a defining moment for Benjamin’s artistic journey. We are proud to have partnered and co-invested with the Biennale of Sydney 2026 under the Pacific Arts Strategy to share New Zealand perspectives and stories at globally significant platform for artists,” Makerita says.
Benjamin’s sculpture brings together steel, aluminium, tin, whale bone and photography to respond to a tragic 1863 history that stretches from Sydney to New Zealand and north to Tonga. His work traces the chain of events that led to the violent abduction of 30 men from his grandmother’s island of Niuafoʻou.
“The research has become a process of reconnection. Through making, I am tracing the lines back to the stories of my ancestors. I’ve come to understand that these marks, whether carved or incised, are mirrors of identity. When we see kupesi, we see ourselves. In contexts that tell us we are disconnected, these marks insist otherwise. Disconnection is a myth; the knowledge lives in our DNA.”
Benjamin’s inclusion at the 25th Biennale of Sydney aligns with Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Strategy development of Pacific arts to build the Va (meaningful relationships and partnerships) and priorities to ‘grow Pacific arts globally’ and ‘deepen strategic partnerships and collaborations.’