Culture 101

Arts News: Quasi on the move, live performance contributes $17.3 billion and a Yorkshire Pud halloween costume

Collaboration with artists across many disciplines and styles has long marked out the work of Pōneke Wellington musician David Long. 

David Long is perhaps still best known as a key musical partner of Don McGlashan in ‘90s band The Mutton Birds, and prior to that as part of experimental outfit Six Volts, who backed up the Front Lawn on their first recordings. 

But Long has also created the music for countless films including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, BBC series The Luminaries and recent Loren Taylor feature The Moon is Upside Down. Then there’s his long track record composing for contemporary dance, including writing many pieces for pre-eminent choreographer, the late Douglas Wright.

When asked by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi to describe the highlight of soon becoming a 2024 arts laureate, and winner of the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award, playwright and producer Victor Rodger replied:

“It means that I get to stand in front of an audience and thank my mother for essentially being the main reason I get to stand there in the first place.”

Which is exactly what Rodger did, sharing the award at the Arts Foundation function late October with his “Mother Laureate”.

It’s the ‘Gumboot Capital of the World’, and proudly lives up to that reputation.

You could describe Iwen Yong as an accidental artist. Malaysian-born, he moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of six. First settling in Wellington, they moved to the Hutt Valley where he attended primary and high school.

Two bananas duct taped to the wall find themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight. In a clown, fruit mash-up of physical theatre, How To Art is hitting the walls of Basement Theatre in Auckland.

To say the artist duo Kemi Whitwell and Niko Leyden have an obsession with backcountry huts is no overstatement. 

It’s been the focus of their art and design for more than 12 years. The Waikato-based couple, who dub themselves Kemi & Niko, employ the skills of fine craft modelling, sustainable building and social connection to create miniatures of classic, and public programmes, for people to engage with them.

For more than two decades, award-winning journalist and presenter, Amanda Gillies has been gracing the screens in the living rooms of Kiwi homes.

Extraordinary photographs of youth in late 70’s early ‘80s Newcastle in the UK have in recent years started to come fully into the light, thanks to the photographer’s daughter. Work that offers an interesting counter to debate over the ethics of documentary photography around the work of artists like Ans Westra here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nicknamed at one time ‘The Demon Snapper’ for her controversial advocacy, working class photographer Tish Murtha powerfully captured the impact of Thatcherism on the north east of England.

Tucked away in the armpit of Cuba Street is Buttercat Tattoo, a collective of six artists dedicated to elevating each other's work and exploring a broad range of tattoo designs and techniques.

Artists Rose Hu and Tim Gadia speak to Culture 101 about how they carved out unique careers that satisfy their artistic passions.