The buiniga is a traditional Fijian unisex hairstyle. Similar to the afro, but more sculpted, it’s become a source of national pride. Increasingly young women in Fiji are bucking Western trends and refusing to straighten their hair. Fijian born and raised, artist, poet and fashion designer Natasha Ratuva’s exhibition at Aratoi museum in Masterton is called Buiniga, named after the iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian traditional practice).
Dec 02, 2023•11 min
A New Zealand jeweller has won big at the XIV Florence Biennale Exhibition and Awards, taking first prize for Jewellery Art and Design.
Dec 02, 2023•14 min
Actor and star of The Brokenwood Mysteries Fern Sutherland has just wrapped her 10th season on the television detective drama. A feat for any show in New Zealand to last this long.
Dec 02, 2023•13 min
The black stilt or kakī is one of the world's most endangered birds. It is central to the latest work of Kāi Tahu Otepoti artist Madison Kelly’s new work in a major exhibition Spring Time is Heartbreak: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa just opened at Christchurch Art Gallery.
Nov 26, 2023•13 min
Arts news this week as read on the show.
Nov 26, 2023•2 min
On the back cover of his recently published first book of poems, Crackle in the Rain, Ciaran Fox describes himself as a whisky-chasing sensualist, poet, father and born-again skateboarder. He is also an ardent supporter of emerging writers: a regular co-host of Poetry Slam and a cofounder of the long-running open mic night and literary journal Catalyst, now in its 21st year.
Nov 26, 2023•15 min
Prayas Theater is bringing the masterpiece, The Clay Cart or Mricchakatika to stage in an adaptation for modern audiences.
Nov 26, 2023•17 min
A panel with Michael Bell, Steph Walker and Kiri Jarden. It’s almost 13 years since the devastating earthquake of 22 February 2011, which forced 70 percent of the Ōtautahi Christchurch CBD to be demolished. While the rebuild has been a slow and often difficult process in visions meeting reality, there is also much to celebrate in the city taking up the opportunity, through art and design, to remake it as a place for all.
Nov 26, 2023•23 min
Whether you like it or not, the age of AI is here. In his latest exhibition Legacy, photographer Jon Carapiet uses AI technology to reanimate current well known and powerful figures, creating the sense of a time machine.
Nov 25, 2023•13 min
Artist Pia Hill was four when she held her first group exhibition as a curator, in her bedroom. The Bat Show raised hundreds of dollars towards these endangered species conservation. Now, aged eight, Pia Hill’s second show as curator, Pūrākau has been held this weekend at Toi Auaha, a new inner city studio space for artists in central Ōtautahi. The exhibition featured work by a range of artists and tamariki.
Nov 25, 2023•11 min
It’s the end of an era. A Snort era. What was supposed to be one month, became one decade. The weekly improv comedy show in Tamaki Makaurau which quickly became a cult hit and drew in the crowds to The Basement every Friday night, has come to an end.
Nov 25, 2023•15 min
Dr Huhana Smith (Ngāti Tukorehe) was the first graduate from Toioho ki Apiti with a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts in 1998. She now holds a PhD in Māori studies.
Nov 19, 2023•27 min
Living in the Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki, where he runs a gallery and shop with his wife Mia Brennan, Hohepa 'Hori' Thompson says his art and expressions are his way of “decolonising himself”, a journey that is still on-going.
Nov 19, 2023•21 min
Culture 101 Arts News: November 19 2023
Nov 19, 2023•6 min
Marcus McShane’s latest experiment is to employ his cargo bike as a mobile video projection unit, screening commissioned audiovisual animation onto the upper floors of Cuba Street buildings as he cycles along, with the film designed to work in rhythm with his bike.
Nov 18, 2023•12 min
It is 50 years since The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Nov 18, 2023•12 min
The NZSO will accompany an 80-strong choir this week in a celebration of Pasifika music, combining symphony with songs from the Pacific.
Nov 18, 2023•21 min
Dr Rebecca Rice, Curator in Historical New Zealand Art has been rethinking Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial visual culture, and her current research focuses on nineteenth-century female botanical artists, who arguably have not had the attention they deserve. Working between the fields of art and science, Rice says their work often sought to interest a wider public in the burgeoning field of botany, and highlight the diversity of flowers endemic to this country.
Nov 18, 2023•16 min
There are many books about lighthouse keepers. And many iconic images of lighthouses on our coastline. Yet the lighthouse keeper was pretty much made extinct in the 1970s in New Zealand when lighthouses became automated. In Adrienne Jansen’s sixth novel, Light Keeping, the work and home of the lighthouse keeper is brought back to life. Giving voice to others, through writing and publishing opportunities has been something Jansen has devoted most of her career to. Principally to those we hear fro...
Nov 12, 2023•19 min
Spooky, beautiful, yet funny, Greta Anderson’s photography transforms day into night, while invasive flora and domestic objects glow with spiritual electricity.
Nov 12, 2023•29 min
Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region around the motu - for our regional wrap. This week we're in culture-rich Ōtepoti, Dunedin with Pip Laufiso.
Nov 12, 2023•8 min
“Sharpen your pencils and limp your wrists, Queer Academy is upon us.”
Nov 12, 2023•11 min
Records are made to be broken right?
Nov 11, 2023•11 min
Born and raised in Rēkohu, the largest of the Chatham Islands, musician and storyteller Ajay Peni is a young ambassador for the revitalisation of Moriori culture and its rongo, or music. While now based in Perth, Peni’s blues-rock group Black Robin provides a contemporary musical window into the experiences and stories of this remote and wild South-Eastern part of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Nov 11, 2023•18 min
Every week on Culture 101 we invite a guest to share their love of culture and shout out to other artists. This week it's actor, director and producer Te Kohe Tuhaka (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou).
Nov 11, 2023•15 min
Three theatre institutions are celebrating 50th anniversaries this year.
Nov 05, 2023•26 min
A pioneer artist across the ‘60s and ‘70s and one of the most influential arts educators of his generation, Jim Allen passed away just shy of turning 101 in June. Known for inspiring what has been termed ‘post-object art’ in New Zealand, Allen was still working as a performance artist in his 90s. And he had a formative influence on another legend of experimentalism and education, artist Phil Dadson.
Nov 05, 2023•28 min
An ambitious new book - Pacific Arts Aotearoa - has been released, spanning six decades of multi-disciplinary contributions from Pacific artists to New Zealand, Oceania and the world.
Nov 05, 2023•21 min
Karin Bettley tells Culture 101 about how her love of creative life in the coastal town of Raglan.
Nov 05, 2023•5 min
An annual Spooky Disco means Halloween proves the busiest day of the year for a community and arts centre established on the green and surrounding buildings of a former bowling club in the Eastern Hills of Wellington.
Nov 05, 2023•16 min
