Culture 101

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...

The Cardrona or the Thistle Inn? The Puhoi or Hotel De Brett? The White Hart or the Whangamomona? Which is this country’s most classic pub?

Dame Susan Devoy’s career has been nothing if not lane-changing. And as such, an inspiration for us all.

There’s human intelligence - when we use it. We’re getting to grips with artificial intelligence. And many people are getting fascinated with plant intelligence - the magic work of mycelium for example. But there are other intelligences - what Awhiworld, a group of ‘artists, scientists, hackers and makers’ in Whangārei call  ‘Strange Intelligences’.

The rural town of Greytown in the Wairarapa in the lower North Island is particularly proud of its heritage and history. 

We all make mistakes, but can we accept our errors and take action before things start to unravel beyond our control?  In New Zealand director Christine Jeffs’ powerful new feature film A Mistake, adapted from the novel by Carl Shuker, American actor Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) plays a gifted surgeon dealing with the aftermath of an emergency surgery that went wrong. The reas...

The fashion designer is celebrating 25 years of the label Crane Brothers and to mark the occasion, the company is teaming up with The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to launch a Laureate Award for design

“It is a cliche to say literature saves lives,” Behrouz Boochani has written, “but I experienced it with my whole being.” Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer who came to international attention after his memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature and the prize for non-fiction in Au...

Arts news: a cheeky ceramics award winner, Chidgey nets Darwin and Dickens publisher and a new Christchurch artist space

The latest production by Māori theatre company Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, Unreel tells the story of a community affected by gambling as the Hīnaki Hotel looks set to launch the very first AI pokie machine.    This year Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu celebrate 35 years as Aotearoa New Zealand's longest running independent Māori Theatre Company.  Co-founder and celebrated veteran actor Jim Moriarty has...