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!
On the 5th of March, Aotearoa author Lauren Keenan released her debut novel, The Space Between, via Penguin Books New Zealand. Set in Aotearoa in 1860 during the Taranaki Wars, the historical fiction novel explores themes of alienation through the lives of two women who struggle to reconcile their pasts.
Beth spoke with Lauren about the novel and the feedback it’s received since its release. You can purchase The Space Between at your local bookstore.
Jimmy Robert is Artspace’s current artist in residence. He is interested in the body’s discipline into the following categories: acceptably invisible, or acceptably visible.
His exhibition Joie noire will be at Artspace on Karangahape Road from 20 April – 13 July 2024. It is the third reinterpretation of a performance by Jimmy of the same title which debuted in Berlin in 2019.
Beth spoke to Jimmy about Joie noire and the conditions of the body in the public sphere.
My Creative Rights has been developed by a non-profit org Copyright Licensing NZ (CLNZ) to demystify dense legal language around copyright and help writers and artists protect their intellectual property. Free 15-minute consultations with a legal advisor are available which are subsidised by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage for a limited time.
Artistic and academic Yolunda Hickman works with CLNZ as a visual arts advisor. Beth spoke with her about My Creative Rights and the importance of knowing your rights as an artist in Aotearoa.
Vira Paky is award winning poet, playwright, writer and a community activist.
In 2021 Vira was awarded Amnesty International’s Gary Ware Legacy award.
With funding from the award and in conjunction with Black Creatives Aotearoa and Auckland Theatre Company, Vira will be hosting a a one-day applied theatre workshop for young refugees
The workshop is intended to provide a space for young refugees and migrants to explore positive mental health and well-being through applied theatre.
Nicholas spoke to Vira about the workshop, he began by asking about her experience with theatre.
Nicholas spoke to Vira Paky a recipient of Amnesty International’s Gary Ware Legacy award about a new one-day applied theatre workshop that she is running for young refugees and migrants.
He also spoke to Music therapist Rachel Foxell about the upcoming music therapy week, that is happening from the 10th-15th of April.
And Beth catches up with artistic and academic Yolunda Hickman about My Creative Rights, a programme subsidised by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, that provides artists free 15-minute consultations with a legal advisor.
That’s so last century: What we wore 1950s – 1990s is an exhibition that explores New Zealand’s fashion history.
The exhibition contains photographs, magazines, LPs, trade catalogues, manuscripts, clothing patterns, and books held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections that give insight to our fashion habits from the middle to the end of the 20th century.
Nicholas spoke to one of the exhibition's curators, Zoë Colling, about the curation process.
Luck is an intangible and ever-elusive aspect of the human experience.
The concept of luck has many names across the globe, spanning cultures and continents.
A new exhibition at Gus Fisher gallery brings together a group of artists from around the world to explore differing perspectives and culture positioning regarding luck.
The pieces touch on how aspects of chance, unpredictability, agency and control can play out in artistic production.
Nicholas spoke to contributing artist Louise Menzies about her approach to the concept of luck, as well as her experience as a part of the exhibition.
Chris Riddell is a world-renowned illustrator and author of children’s books and the political cartoonist for the Observernewspaper. He has collaborated with artists and writers such as Neil Gaiman, Phoebe Bridgers and Frances Hardinge. In 2018 he travelled to Aotearoa to speak at the Auckland Writers Festival. Most recently, Chris has releasedI Can’t Remember What We Talked About, a slim volume of 24 poems.
Beth and Chris chat about the creative process of art-making and poetry writing, love of nature, designing pop-up books for the backdrop of Phoebe Bridgers’ tour and magical pear tree staffs. Chris reads some poems and they also speak about what it’s like being a political cartoonist in the current political climate.
Nicholas speaks to Zoë Colling, one of the curators of That’s so last century, a new exhibition at the Auckland City library that explores New Zealand fashion from the 1950s-1990s.
Beth speaks to world-renowned illustrator and author of children’s books and the political cartoonist for the Observer, Chris Riddell, about his new volume of poems, I Can’t Remember What We Talked About.
To end the show, Nicholas speaks to Louise Menzies an artist featured in Eight thousand layers of moments, an exhibition hosted at Gus Fisher Gallery.