This episode stems from an event which took place on the 27th of April 2022. It features Oscar-winning film director Dame Jane Campion and actor Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie speaking with Adam Art Gallery Director Christina Barton discussing two largescale paintings recently installed on the Victoria University of Wellington Kelburn Campus: Easy Living I, 2015, by Wellington artist Séraphine Pick and Conflicts of the Psyche – The Struggle Between Ambition and Desire II, 1984, by New Zealand-born, London-based artist Alexis Hunter (1948–2016). This intriguing pairing not only puts together two talented film-world figures as lenders, but it also stages a fascinating conversation between two figurative artists who have depicted female subjects with equal parts dark and light psychic intensity.

Both works are on loan to the University Art Collection and have been lent by their owners because they want the paintings to be seen and enjoyed. Jane Campion and her mother Edith Campion deposited the Alexis Hunter painting in 1999 when the filmmaker was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her already celebrated work. The gallery team were delighted to bring this painting to its now prominent location in the Maclaurin Lecture Theatre Foyer and into conversation with the recent loan of Seraphine Pick’s Easy Living I from the accomplished young actor Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie. Campion and McKenzie are both Wellington born and raised and both come from families prominent in the fields of theatre and film. We were thrilled that they agreed to talk about their paintings at a small event that launched the Adam’s contribution to the University’s 125 celebrations for Adam Art Gallery Patrons and Volunteers on the evening of 27 April. This is the recording from that event.