Culture 101

Collaboration with artists across many disciplines and styles has long marked out the work of Pōneke Wellington musician David Long.  David Long is perhaps still best known as a key musical partner of Don McGlashan in ‘90s band The Mutton Birds, and prior to that as part of experimental outfit Six Volts, who backed up the Front Lawn on their first recordings.  But Long has also created the music f...

When asked by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to describe the highlight of soon becoming a 2024 arts laureate, and winner of the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award, playwright and producer Victor Rodger replied: “It means that I get to stand in front of an audience and thank my mother for essentially being the main reason I get to stand there in the first place.” Which is exactly what Rodger did, shar...

It’s the ‘Gumboot Capital of the World’, and proudly lives up to that reputation.

You could describe Iwen Yong as an accidental artist. Malaysian-born, he moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of six. First settling in Wellington, they moved to the Hutt Valley where he attended primary and high school. 

Two bananas duct taped to the wall find themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight. In a clown, fruit mash-up of physical theatre, How To Art is hitting the walls of Basement Theatre in Auckland.

To say the artist duo Kemi Whitwell and Niko Leyden have an obsession with backcountry huts is no overstatement.  It’s been the focus of their art and design for more than 12 years. The Waikato-based couple, who dub themselves Kemi & Niko, employ the skills of fine craft modelling, sustainable building and social connection to create miniatures of classic, and public programmes, for people to enga...

For more than two decades, award-winning journalist and presenter, Amanda Gillies has been gracing the screens in the living rooms of Kiwi homes. 

Extraordinary photographs of youth in late 70’s early ‘80s Newcastle in the UK have in recent years started to come fully into the light, thanks to the photographer’s daughter. Work that offers an interesting counter to debate over the ethics of documentary photography around the work of artists like Ans Westra here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nicknamed at one time ‘The Demon Snapper’ for her controv...

Tucked away in the armpit of Cuba Street is Buttercat Tattoo, a collective of six artists dedicated to elevating each other's work and exploring a broad range of tattoo designs and techniques. Artists Rose Hu and Tim Gadia speak to Culture 101 about how they carved out unique careers that satisfy their artistic passions.

This week poet Tusiata Avia once again found herself in the news. 

The popular Kāpiti Arts Trail is on over the first two weekends of November, boasting over 300 artists opening up their studios and shared spaces, or exhibiting in 13 galleries from Ōtaki to Paekākāriki. Since 2001 the programme has helped put Kāpiti on the map.   A keen supporter is the district’s mayor Janet Holborow, who joins us for this week's Regional Wrap.

From the Cuba Street bucket fountain to the fake lake at Te Papa and the famous 1958 James Turkington mural at the Parnell Baths, artist duo Bena Jackson and Max Fleury have an interest in our relationship to public water features.  

Anyone who thinks controversy around cycle lanes is anything new, should pick up a copy of Michael Toohey’s just published account of the bicycle’s beginnings in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Cycling Pioneers. 

Matthew Sunderland is an Aotearoa New Zealand screen actor whose characters often turn up unexpectedly, in unexpected places. Ever since playing gunman David Gray - the man who killed 13 residents in the small township of Aramoana - in acclaimed 2006 film Out of the Blue, Sunderland has been looked to play outliers and, frankly, disturbed individuals. 

This weeks Fast Favourites guest is Wellington-based producer, writer, and director Vanessa Stacey is a jack of all creative trades. With more than two decades of experience, her extensive portfolio spans theatre, film, music, and television. 

Theatre director Ben Crowder had never really watched Peter Pan. He’d seen a London production as a child, and admits he was mostly confused, and the 1991 film Hook which stars Robyn Williams and Dustin Hoffman.

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa and this week we’re in the town of Matamata.

For six hours, artist and photographer Elisabeth Denis photographed a model in a durational performance piece. Instead of camera clicks or shutter sounds, these were replaced with the sound of bullets firing from a gun. Sharp, abrasive and uncomfortable. 

The year is 2005. Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah Winfrey’s couch, Mariah Carey has made a resurgence, skinny jeans and Thin Lizzy are all the rage and dial-up internet is in full swing.

The latest machine to arrive at arcade Ye Olde Pinball Shoppe in Pōneke Wellington is Pulp Fiction. It’s packed with the classic soundtrack and audio clips, together with table sculptures of your favourite characters and a half eaten hamburger - the iconic Royale with cheese.

It’s one of the most popular shows of the 21st century and now, another iteration is taking place downunder. The Office is set in Australia with the first female boss - Hannah Howard, at a Sydney-based packaging company, played by actor and comedian Felicity Ward. 

28-year-old Jacob Geller is an enormously popular Youtube video game essayist and art enthusiast.

Rakiura, with a population of just 450, is the furthest south we have ventured for RNZ Culture 101’s Regional Wrap.

This spring, nine of Akira Kurosawa’s most beloved films are returning to Aotearoa's cinemas, including a brand-new digital restoration of Seven Samurai.

A Slow Burlesque is a work that has been on Freya Finch's mind for almost a decade. Freya's interest in burlesque first started at John Bolton Theatre School. A four-month intensive course in Melbourne, Finch describes it as a boot camp-like experience, performing newly devised work every week. The training has a particular focus on mask, Bouffon, clown and vaudeville styles and it was here, Finch...