Standing Room Only for Sunday 18 April 2021

 

12:16  The life of Rita Angus revisited

It's ironic - you spend years researching a book, it wins acclaim and awards when it's published,  and then it generates new information that you wish you'd been able to include in it.

But the good news for Jill Trevelyan and her magnum opus on respected painter Rita Angus, is that there's now a revised edition.

Jill Trevelyan won the Non Fiction Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2009 for her biography of one of New Zealand's leading 20th century artists.

A lot's happened since then - the discovery of some Angus sketches and a major exhibition of the artist's work in London, cruelly cancelled because of Covid 19.

The revised edition of Rita Angus An Artist's Life is out ahead of an exhibition of her work later in the year at Te Papa in Wellington.

Lynn Freeman asksd Jill why she was so keen to revisit the biography:

Rita Angus, An artist's life by Jill Trevelyan is published by Te Papa Press.
 

12:32  An often Invisible history of the casualties of war

Portraying the invisible through visual art - that's the challenge more than 20 artists from universities in Poland, America and New Zealand set themselves back in 2019.

The exhibition Invisible's been shown in the other two countries.  Now after a Covid-19-related delay, it's about to open at the College of Creative Arts at Massey University in Wellington.

Angela Kilford is one of the Kiwi co-curators of Invisible.  As part of her contribution to it, she's taking people on a walk around Pukeahu, the home of Wellington's War Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a park.

Angela showed Lynn Freeman some of the less well known sites that she wants to draw to people's attention. 

They met outside the former New Zealand Dominion Museum Building to talk about her projected digital image that's toured with the Invisible exhibition:

Invisible opens to the public on the 23rd of April at  Massey University, Wellington.
 

12:45 Caren Rangi - the first Pacific Chair of the Arts Council

Caren Rangi, the first Pacific Chair of the Arts Council in its 55-year history, is confident more Pasifika leaders will head the body that governs arts funder Creative New Zealand in the future.

Ms Rangi is also only the third woman to be appointed Chair of Toi Aotearoa.

Caren has a strong connection to the Cook Islands and has served on the boards of NZ on Air, Te Papa and RNZ. 

She's also been the Council's Acting Chair since December last year.  And in 2018 she was conferred with an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to governance and the Pacific community.  

Caren Rangi tells Lynn Freeman she's proud to be the Art Council's first Pacific chair:
 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris looks at the upcoming Academy Awards, and reviews Voyagers and the Bafta-winning Rocks.

 

1:31  Transmission

More than 20 hours of interviews recorded during and since the New Zealand-wide lockdown in March last year, have been distilled into a stage show called Transmission.

The key figures for creators Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt were epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson.

The aim was to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how they were thinking and feeling at the time.

The verbatim stage play is about to premiere in Wellington.   Lynn Freeman talks to three of the cast:  Sophie Hambleton, who plays Jacinda Ardern, Tom Knowles who plays Grant Robertson, and Tim Spite, who returns to the stage to portray Michael Baker.:

Transmission premieres at Bats Theatre in Wellington on Tuesday, April 20.
 

1:50 New flags commemorate the people and horses of World War One

On ANZAC Day, flags will fly around the Wairarapa to commemorate both the soldiers and the horses who made up the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade serving in the first World War.

Creating the flags and banners as part of the NZ Pacific Studio ANZAC Bridge Fellowship is Esther Bunning, 2020 New Zealand Professional Photographer of the Year.

Esther worked with the local community, including school children, to come up with ideas and words to include on the flags..

Lynn Freeman first asked Esther about her love of horses, and how to capture them in photographs:

Esther Bunning's ANZAC flags will fly on Sunday, in towns around the Wairarapa, and at the ANZAC Memorial Bridge at Kaiparoro for the afternoon ANZAC service.  

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Kris Beattie

Right now, the buzz is building for the New Zealand Comedy Festival - this year, mostly homegrown, cashing in on the increasingly confident Kiwi standup scene.

That usually means Auckland-based, reflecting the fact that that's where the lion's share of the work is - on stage and on TV.  

But Lynn Freeman has been noticing a rise in the number of comedians from the Capital - Jerome Chandrahasan, Patch Lambert, Sameena Zehra, and this week's Laugh Track guest - performer and MC, Kris Beattie.

Kris's picks include Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Lee Evans, Harry Hill, Jerome Chandrahasan and Sarah Millican.

Kris's Comedy Festival show Kris Beattie has stopped working, opens at Wellington's Cavern Club on May 18.

 

2:25 Alys Longley links up with artist around the world

Dr Alys Longley from the University of Auckland has become an expert in collaborating with artists around the world in these pandemic disrupted times.

The Associate Professor of Dance Studies in the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, has been managing three projects that involved artists around the planet.

And they don't all hinge on Zooming.   One relies on the good old postal service, where artists send each other envelopes with blank paper inside on which to create.  Another involves a digital map for each artist to add to. 

The finished work will be shown in exhibitions in Melbourne and Santiago.  Then it will be released as a virtual gallery and performance space, created in collaboration with NZ designers Kate Stevenson and Chris White of Dot Dot Studios.   This will allow audiences to interact with the artwork from anywhere in the world.

Alys is talking about her project at the University of Auckland's upcoming Raising the Bar event, to be held in pubs and bars throughout the city on Tuesday, April 20.  She talks to Lynn Freeman about the three very different projects.

 

2:38  New poetry from author - and slam artist - Courtney Sina Meredith

Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind is the latest collection of poems by author, playwright and slam artist Courtney Sina Meredith.

Courtney's first poetry book Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick came out in 2021, followed by collected short stories, Tail of the Taniwha and the non-fiction The Adventures of Tupaia.

But she believes her second collection of poems is even more personal, reflecting on displacement and connection.   It's also edited by her mother and poet, Kim Meredith.

Courtney reads one of her new poems and talks to Lynn Freeman about them.:

Beatnik has published Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind by Courtney Sina Meredith.
 

2:49 A long-needed diary rescue project

Do you have a diary hidden away somewhere at risk of being chucked out or just deteriorating due to lack of attention?

Dr Vivienne Plumb is a  devotee of diaries.  She's also a poet, fiction writer, novelist and playwright, who's promoting the establishment of a New Zealand Diary Project to rescue and collect, archive and preserve diaries written by any New Zealander. 

Vivienne's about to open a photo diary exhibition of pictures she took throughout 1998.  Lynn Freeman asks her what's the fascination of other people's diaries?

The 1998 Photo Diary Exhibition opens at Thistle Hall in Wellington on Tuesday, April 20,  and there's a diary workshop there on Saturday, April 24..
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - The Pickle King by Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis

The Pickle King is a romantic comedy set in a hotel, adapted from the award winning theatre production by Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis.

It is the story of Jojo, a recent arrival to New Zealand who works at the faded Empire hotel as a night porter. Back in India he was a heart surgeon. The hotel is run by the fierce, tight-fisted Ammachy with the help of her niece Sacha. One night a mysterious guest with an obsession with pickles checks into the hotel.