Culture 101

A well known arts critic, historian and commentator, Andrew Paul Wood in Timaru fills us in on ‘drama’ around the Timaru Theatre Royal redevelopment, which includes a new venue for South Canterbury Museum and some functions of the Aigantighe Art Gallery - one of the South Island’s most significant public galleries.

What would a map that represents a more distinct lived human cultural perspective look like? That has been the very personal question for Icao Tiseli with her award-winning project Mapping the Wheke. At the end of 2023, the Tongan-born Tāmaki Makaurau-based associate at architecture firm Jasmax was named one of six winners for the project at Archiprix International, a biennial competition that loo...

It’s the 96th Academy Awards on Monday 11th March - the final ceremony of the awards season which started almost a year ago at the Cannes Film Festival.

The true story behind theatre show Boy is both controversial and compelling. Appearing at the Auckland Arts Festival theatre and written by Dutch-born, Netherlands-based playwright Carly Wijs (Us/Them) is based on the life of twins, Bruce and Brian Reimer born in Canada in 1966.

Ōtepoti Dunedin’s Robert Scott is best known as a member of seminal New Zealand bands The Bats and The Clean, but more quietly he’s been painting for decades with work appearing in both exhibitions and on album covers. These days he also co-runs Port Chalmers gallery Pea Sea Art.   On Friday, an exhibition devoted to the art of Scott’s late Clean bandmate Hamish Kilgour, I Go Side On opened at Pūm...

News from Aotearoa and abroad

Berlin-based New Zealand artist Simon Denny’s work has long explored the culture of new technology and the dreams tech entrepreneurs sell us.    Back in 2016, Denny was one of the first artists to look at the complex politics behind  blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. His work has looked critically at the boom and bust of the NFT (or non-fungible token) as a way of creating ownership of dig...

Artists in Tauranga recently took a creative response to comment on the City Council's Long Term Plan, which proposes steep rental increases for community groups, and a 'user pays' approach to charging for access to community spaces. 

At the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Pōneke hangs an enormous New Zealand flag upon which artist Richard Lewer has painted the words: “To have a future I must reconcile with MY past.”  Lewer’s exhibition What they didn’t teach me at school about the Waikato Wars has been his most difficult project, he tells Culture 101’s Mark Amery.

British coming-of-age drama, How to Have Sex has found a new way to tackle the issue of sexual consent. It’s strangely both nostalgic and very uncomfortable - which is perhaps, exactly why you should watch it. 

Habitat-printing robot birds, water-filtering sewer submarines, and flying bikes launched on waste heat thermals are just a few of the 100-plus bonkers ideas artist and industrial designer Steve Mushin is suggesting to our cities to address climate change.

Yoson An’s career (Mulan, The Luminaries, Dead Lucky, Creamerie)  has been steadily on the rise and impressively, he’s played a wide range of characters. But until now he’s never been a rom-com lead.

What is it with tall people up the front at gigs? Should morning raves replace gym sessions? Joining us this week on Best of the Fest are writers Emily Perkins and Arihia Latham, artist Suzanne Tamaki and theatre critic Cate Prestidge. This is the second episode of a brand new RNZ national five-week lively conversation series  about a feast of cultural treats on offer in arts festivals across Aote...

RNZ Culture 101 presents the first episode online and on-air of Best of the Fest - a brand new five-week 30 minute panel discussion series.  Hosts Perlina Lau and Mark Amery are joined by Aotearoa artists and commentators for lively banter about a feast of cultural treats on offer in arts festivals across New Zealand.

Arts News for 25 February 2024

Whether you’re a Swiftie or you’re rolling your eyes, you can’t deny the influence of Taylor Swift. She is inescapable and it feels as though she’s been on a mission of world domination this past year. 

Every week Culture 101 speaks to a creative correspondent to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions. Speaking from Kirikiriroa as the Hamilton Arts Festival kicks off, theatre critic Louisa Drummond joins Perlina Lau to discuss the latest arts and culture offerings in the Waikato region.

Acclaimed Irish singer songwriter Lisa O’Neill has been enjoying some wider attention lately for two reasons. Firstly, a spellbinding rendition of ‘Fairytale of New York’ sung alongside Glen Hansard at the funeral of her friend Shane McGowan. And secondly for her cover of Bob Dylan's ‘All the Tired Horses’ on the last ever episode of popular TV series Peaky Blinders.

The Savage Club started in London in 1857 and was a ‘gentleman’s club’ dedicated to the arts and literature. Eventually, it was established throughout the Commonwealth. Fast forward to 2010, and artist Sistar S’pacific, aka Rosanna Raymond conceived The SaVĀge K'lub, and like its namesake which inspired it, it too, has grown into a collective of chapters worldwide. 

Cabaret Thoroughly Modern Māui stemmed from a conversation between musical theatre performer Rutene Spooner and actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand. 

A group of acclaimed Maori artists have been selected to exhibit as part of the centrepiece international exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale in May. Brett Graham was one of those chosen.  But it’s not the only island hopping the sculptor has been doing this year. Brett is the curator of this year’s Sculpture on the Gulf, opening this weekend on Waiheke Island, Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s arguably...

A theatre show at this year’s Hamilton Arts Festival was inspired by an incident and debate at Waitangi in 2021. 

Poetry and music at their best share a trick: the ability to be both celestial and grounded; dealing with the particulars of our lives, yet moving into abstraction. They can be at once very personal to their writers, but also build community.  This is certainly true of Te Whanganui-a-Tara poet Sylvan Spring’s first book Killer Rack, recently published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. As noveli...

Super Bowl 58 was held in Las Vegas this year with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the San Francisco 49ers. The event has become a cultural phenomenon across the world, televised in more than 200 countries. 

Every week Culture 101 speaks to a creative correspondent to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions. This week, we’re in Kaikoura with writer, poet, researcher and museum curator, Te Awhina Rangimarie Arahanga.