We’re in a housing crisis, most people agree. With strong awareness of the inequalities that it brings. 

Yet, when it comes to talking about solutions to something so complex yet so personal, people struggle - reaching for phrases like ‘this housing thing’. 

This Housing Thing is the title of a moving image work by artist Dieneke Jansen, who has long dedicated her art and activism to housing. It’s currently screening at galleries The Physics Room in Ōtautahi Christchurch and Enjoy in Pōneke Wellington until the end of August.

It’s 1979 in Ōtautahi Christchurch and an energetic underground punk scene is spewing up. It’s decades before the internet, with the very latest overseas sounds dribbling in slowly by import. Records shipped all the way from the UK.      

This is the fertile and nostalgic setting for Sydney-based director, Jonathan Ogilvie's excellent fourth feature film, Head South. It’s premiering in Aotearoa New Zealand at this year's Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival. 

He spoke to RNZ’s Culture 101.

Arts News for 28 July 2024

Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region in Aotearoa every Sunday and this week we’re in New Plymouth, Taranaki.

From Sappho, to Sweden’s Queen and the Suffragettes, Unsuitable is the first book of its kind, spanning centuries and continents, uncovering the often hidden history of lesbian fashion.

They’ve been dubbed ‘the MTV generation’ and the ‘Forgotten generation’ (though now they’re in power: ‘forgotten no more’ we say). They are Generation X: those born between 1965 and 1980. 

The baby boomers came before them, the millennials after and the Gen Xers may still be getting used to it - but they are all now middle-aged.

So, brought together, what does the art they’ve made tell us?

It’s described as genre-bending, bespoke and immersive - a show you can’t fit into one category.

Hugo Grrrl keeps rather busy. He’s a fulltime drag artist - not just performing, but MCing, producing, writing and providing opportunities for the next generation of performers. 

The alias of George Fowler, Hugo Grrrl’s events are also notoriously inventive - and sparkly - working in all manner of social spaces.

Dream Chambers is the moniker of the multifaceted artist Jess Chambers, a composer, performer, and cofounder of the Pōneke electronic music collective - Techno Echo.

Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Takihiku) is a gifted writer but a reluctant one. While most debut authors refer to their new books as their babies she prefers to refer to Whaea Blue as an orphan.