INFO
| Name | The Happy Kids Archive |
| Year | 2023 |
| Type of Text | Artist book |
| Artform | Visual arts |
| City | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland |
| Creative Team | Made by The Doctor, Ningyi Hu, Yuyi (Anglea) Hu, Cindy Huang, Aroha Abigail Jensen, The Killing, Gabi Lardies, Xi Li, Qianhe ‘AL’ Lin, Qianye Lin, Susu, James Tapsell-Kururangi, Ashleigh Taupaki, Jasmine Tuiā, Seo Yeon, JingCheng Zhao and Yumoi Zheng Designed by Gabi Lardies |
ABOUT
The Happy Kids Archive, a 216-page publication featuring 21 artists and makers from across Aotearoa and abroad, was launched at Samoa House Library in Tāmaki Makaurau in June 2023.
Playing with the formal historical authority an archive holds, the publication is a radical reimagining of what an archive can be. The Happy Kids Archive appropriates and tests the term 'archive' in “an aggressive manner, Assertively, forcefully, putting forward a playful, magical, affirmative, angry, biassed, agitated, partial, excited, out-of-order mess that is self-archiving”.
Across various mediums such as text, photography, textiles, comics, illustration, collage and recipes, as well as old and new works, participants were granted full autonomy to document themselves however they like. It is a practice that stems from and fosters working together, living together, making together and for each other. The archive therefore tacitly became a way to extend love, care and agency.
The Happy Kids Archive online promotion captured the daily and artistic lives of the participants with specially tailored videos each sparking their own energy. From London to Kumeū, from Seoul to Taiwan, the Happy Kids drove on sand, walked dogs, mixed cocktails, and made ceramics. One video of Qianhe ‘AL’ Lin playing yoyo reached 1000 views in less than three days.
This project was initiated by Qianhe ‘AL’ Lin, Qianye Lin, Susu and JingCheng Zhao, and funded by Creative New Zealand and Foundation North through the Asian Artists’ Fund 2022.
