Join Sofia Roger Williams and Beth Torrance-Hetherington for kōrero with artists and creative types from the wide art world of Tāmaki Makaurau and beyond!
Selected works by Judy Millar and Kate Newby are currently showing at Michael Lett Gallery.
Judy Millar is an internationally acclaimed artist. Her work is intensely physical, working with processes of erasure, wiping or scraping paint off the surface of the work and contrasting choices of colour to create a tension between the background and foreground. Taking up space, works by Millar are often large-scale, engaging with the body and her work in a space.
Kate Newby is a visual artist from Tāmaki Makaurau who lives and works in Floresville, Texas. Her work engages with a wide range of situations using every-day actions and materials in order to displace and challenge how contemporary art is exhibited, viewed, and archived. She manipulates, fires, and arranges elements from the natural world and built environment, creating site-responsive installations, often with projects drawing directly from the locations in which they are exhibited and the sites she works in.
Sofia caught up with both Judy and Kate about their practices in light of the show.
Ruin on the Cascade is Ayesha Green’s (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) first solo exhibition with Season Aotearoa.
The title refers to a faux ruin in Stowe Gardens, a Georgian landscape garden in Buckinghamshire established in the early 18th century by British army officer and Whig politician Richard Temple, the 1st Viscount Cobham. Using the Stowe Gardens as a framework, Green explores a range of subjects, including class, land use, knowledge systems, ethics, national identity, and British imperialism through her painting and sculptural practice.
Sofia had a kōrero with Ayesha about Ruin on the Cascade, her research and thinking behind the works, and her practice as a whole
Intimation of Endless Space Given in a Small Window of Time (approximately 10 minutes) is a new exhibition by graphic designer Lina Grumm and composer Ethan Braun at Artspace Aotearoa.
The exhibition tends to relationships between sound, space, the visual, and the body, inviting deep listening and limitless interpretation, and engendering a gallery in constant flux.
Sofia had a kōrero with Kaitohu Director of Artspace Aotearoa, Ruth Buchanan, about the show and the artists.
Sofia had a kōrero with Matariki Bennett about her debut poetry collection, e kō, nō hea koe, out now via Dead Bird Books
She also caught up w Kaitohu Director of Artspace Aotearoa, Ruth Buchanan, about their latest exhibition, Intimation of Endless Space Given in a Small Window of Time (approximately 10 minutes) by Lina Grumm and Ethan Braun.
And Beth had a kōrero with Ruby Macomber about Streetside, Auckland Writer’s Festival’s annual fringe event.
And for Stage Direction this week, Alice Canton joined Sofia in the studio to chat with Evie Orpe and Becky Umbers about Comedy Fest.
e kō, nō hea koe is the debut poetry collection by award-winning slam poet and filmmaker Matariki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hinerangi).
Published by Dead Bird Books, e kō, nō hea koe is “a series of goodbyes and attempts to slow the shedding, it's a group of teenagers sparking up as they watch the great pacific garbage patch catapult into space and become a second moon, it's endless conversations with Grandmama about stars, it is the constant rebirth of whakapapa and learning that silence isn’t the best part of her.”
Sofia caught up with Matariki about the themes of this body of work and how it came to fruition.
Streetside is Auckland Writers Festival’s annual fringe event, taking place tonight in the heart of Britomart to coincide with the festival’s opening night.
It features a range of literary events, with guest appearances from writers.
Beth caught up with director of Streetside for 2025, Ruby Macomber, about the events planned for tonight
We listened back to Sofia's coverage of the Aotearoa Art Fair opening on Thursday evening.
Beth spoke to the director of Printopia Festival, Ina Arraoui, about the events planned for this year.
And Sofia spoke to co-authors Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson about their new book, Groundwork: the Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris.
And for Stage Direction this week, Alice Canton joined Sofia in the studio to chat with Florence Hartigan and Shoshana McCallum about Me, My Mother and Suzy Cato and Merely Beloved! - both on at the Herald Theatre from 8-10 May.
Sofia went along to the opening night of the Aotearoa Art Fair. She asked a range of fair-goers what brought them there that evening, and their highlights of the fair thus far.
The Aotearoa Art Fair is on from 1-4 May at the Viaduct Events Centre.
Florence Hartigan and Shoshana McCallum chat to Alice Canton about their shows, Me, My Mother and Suzy Cato and Merely Beloved! on at the Herald Theatre from 8-10 May.
Mayen Mehta and Ryan O'Kane from Auckland Theatre Company joined Sofia in the studio to chat about Murder on the Orient Express, on at ASB Waterfront Theatre 22 April - 10 May.
John Davies joined Sofia and Beth in studio to chat about Te Tupua - The Goblin, a solo play written and performed by Davies himself. Tickets for tonight's show at Te Pou Theatre here.
Ahi Karunaharan joined Beth and Sofia in the studio to talk about a mixtape for maladies, the final chapter of Karunaharan's trilogy. The play tells the story of 17 nostalgic pop tracks which chart the deeply moving journey of Sangeetha and her family in 1950s Sri Lanka. a mixtape for maladies is on at ASB Waterfront Theatre from the 4th March. You can get your tickets here.
Alice Canton spoke to artistic director of Auckland Arts Festival, Bernie Haldane, about the programme this year. The festival is running from 6-23 March. More info here!
95bFM 