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Culture 101

RNZ•www.rnz.co.nz
Society & Culture
Perlina Lau hosts a weekly show about creativity and culture in Aotearoa.
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Episodes

NZ Artist Simon Denny in Berlin and New York on NFTs, meta landscapes and space colonies

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 digital art.

Mar 03, 2024•37 min

The Waikato Wars: What painter Richard Lewer didn’t learn at school

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.

Mar 03, 2024•17 min

Best of the Fest #2: a morning rave, the Savage Coloniser, Witi’s Wahine, The National, Soweto Gospel and the mighty Waikato

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 Aotearoa New Zealand.

Feb 29, 2024•43 min

Regional Wrap: Waikato with Louisa Drummond

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.

Feb 25, 2024•8 min

‘The wind whistling you in behind the springtime’: celebrated Irish musician Lisa O’Neill

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.

Feb 25, 2024•19 min

Reinventing the savage club as SaVĀge K’lub with performance artist Rosanna Raymond

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.

Feb 24, 2024•20 min

A thoroughly modern Māori cabaret

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

Feb 24, 2024•16 min

Sculpture on the islands of Waiheke and Venice: fast favourites with Brett Graham

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 the most highly regarded contemporary sculpture exhibition in the country, forming a trail across th...

Feb 24, 2024•10 min

Bringing the dance floor to the poetry book: Sylvan Spring’s Killer Rack

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 novelist Pip Adam writes on the back cover, Killer Rack is “somehow intimate and communal in the same breat...

Feb 18, 2024•18 min

Regional Wrap: Kaikoura with Te Awhina Rangimarie Arahanga

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.

Feb 18, 2024•10 min

Kristen Ng: bridging Aotearoa and China’s musical undergrounds

Kristen Ng aka electronic artist Kaishandao has been touring Aotearoa this summer in support of her beat-filled album Homeland. She describes it as an “atemporal exploration through the places, spaces and people we call home.” Ng is Pōneke born-and-raised, but home for the past 10 years has been Chengdu, the captial of China’s Southwestern Sichuan province.

Feb 18, 2024•18 min

A shaky time for Aotearoa’s International Film Festival

It’s one of the great cultural events of Aotearoa New Zealand – certainly one of the longest established: Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival. But now, RNZ film critic and broadcaster Simon Morris says it seems a shadow of its former self. The last three years have been a challenge and now, the festival has been rocked by a series of major resignations in the last month.

Feb 17, 2024•31 min

Maureen Lander: weaving with string games and Te Rā our oldest sail

This weekend at Auckland Museum there is a rare overnight wananga to share matauranga Māori knowledge around an extraordinary object: Te Rā, the only customary Maori sail in existence. It has returned to Aotearoa for exhibition, after 200 years in storage at the British Museum.

Feb 11, 2024•23 min

Regional Wrap: Winton with Deow of South Sea Spray Festival

Every week Culture 101 heads to a creative correspondent out around the motu to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions. This week: Māori know it as Murihiku, “the last joint of the tail” but our southernmost graffiti artist Deow’s mission is to bring big painterly life to the walls of Southland’s towns.

Feb 11, 2024•8 min

Lunar New Year: celebrations with paediatrician, poet and playwright Renee Liang

In Aotearoa, families celebrate the Lunar New Year in a variety of ways, says paediatrician, poet and playwright Renee Liang. For her own family, Chinese New Year's Eve is the occasion for a special, lavish meal that's "a little bit like Christmas lunch" in that everyone is expected to turn up at the parental home.

Feb 11, 2024•19 min

Neil Finn: 'Music will save the world'

"We're all trying to kind of find some sound that links us together," celebrated New Zealand musician Neil Finn tells Culture 101 in an upcoming interview.

Feb 10, 2024•24 min
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