INFO
| Name | Hyphen |
| Established | 2023 |
| Decades Active | 2020s |
| Names of Artists | Ana Garcia, Samantha Cheng, Sophia Wu, Thea Long |
ABOUT
Hyphen is a grassroots arts collective aiming to grow a community of Asian artists and increase opportunities for representation within the arts sector. Founded early in 2023 by recent Tāmaki Makaurau art school graduates Ana Garcia, Samantha Cheng and Sophia Wu, with both Wu and Garcia studying at Whitecliffe College, Hyphen has hosted workshops and events throughout the city to open up conversations and create networks of support amongst Asian creatives.
Inspired by Tautai, an organisation dedicated to supporting the Pacific arts since the 1980s, Garcia talks about Hyphen's goals:
People want to put us in a box of ‘that’s what it means to be Asian’, but there are so many different facets, so many different Asian stories to tell. I’m inspired by the way all the Pacific artists involved with Tautai support each other, lift each other up and create opportunities for each other. Hyphen hopes to contribute to strengthening and unifying New Zealand’s Asian arts community in a similar way, building on some of the other awesome initiatives that are already happening in the Asian creative sector here.
The young artists chose Hyphen as their collective’s name to reflect the hyphenated nature of Asian migrant identity — and to highlight the joining of two things together as a strength.
Hyphen’s first series of events, three potluck gatherings called ‘Takeaways’, took place at artist- and community-run spaces in the Central, East and West of Tāmaki Makaurau. As informal gatherings centred around food, they were a simple way to ‘just start’ — and bring together fellow Asian creatives.
Throughout 2023, Hyphen organised a number of practical workshops (zine making, embroidery, animation) led by artists of Asian descent, as well as supporting and promoting artists’ projects, including documentary photographer Phong Ngo and collective member Samantha Cheng.
The Hyphen team is Sophia Wu (design), Thea Long (communications) and Samantha Cheng and Ana Garcia (production and ideas).
