Curatorial Response By Mel Gilbert - Between Outrage and Complacency

In a time of a rapidly shifting political landscape, language plays a quieter but no less powerful role in shaping public life. Reflecting on scripted soundbites and carefully chosen words that increasingly defines our political leadership in Aotearoa.

Community Notices! presents a flurry of visual noise: the physical detritus of a community attempting to shout its messages stack on top of each other. I'm selling my couch, blue tack, I'm looking for work, pins, join our town hall, masking tape, advertising a cooking class, sello-tape. Flecks of paint, corners torn away, layer on top of layer, green on red, marker on note paper, cell phone number tear-aways. Yet upon closer inspection, these notices are not what they seem. While they mimic the casual language and form of everyday community boards, each one carries a political message refracted through the familiar aesthetics of public clutter.

Among the many texts written on the use of, or strategic absence of language, George Orwell’s 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language remains strikingly relevant. It comes to mind with renewed urgency as the New Zealand government moves to repeal the Plain Language Act 2022 — legislation designed to ensure public documents are written in clear, accessible language for the communities they serve.
Orwell reminds us that language is never neutral. He argued that the decay of language is both a symptom and a tool of political obfuscation, writing: “When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” (Orwell 11) In an age where clarity risks exposure, and vagueness becomes a shield, decisions around how or whether governments speak plainly to their citizens take on greater weight.

It beckons the questions, What does our current government want to achieve? What are their long term goals? What have they delivered on? Our election is a year away. In the immediate past and future, what is being asked of us on street corners by our community and our leaders?