Artbank with Theo

Heidi talks to Huriana Koopeke Te Aho about their large-scale work 'Tuuhonotanga' on the Ellen Melville centre. Huriana's work operates in a context of activism around various issues of social justice as well as affirming ways to consider knowledge, and we discuss their journey in finding the integration of Takataapuitanga with Te Ao Maaori. Next Imogen Taylor takes a call to talk about 'Thirsty Work' at Michael Lett. We discuss future directions and the divides between framing a painterly practice and accessing the less tangible operations that it works with. Theo interviews Ivan Lupi about the durational workshop at The Audio Foundation, 'Not as Simple as it sounds', in which they bring up scales of time in addressing trauma. 

This week we spoke to Salene from @long_distancebooks, an instagram bookseller of obscure curiosities, based between London and Tāmaki Makaurau. Later on we caught up with Virginia Auton, who has collaborated with Nat Kai Emmet Miller on the exhibition Sharing Things with Friends, at Satchi & Satchi & Satchi gallery. As always, we played some excellent tunes and slightly flubbed the Art Guide. 

This week, Taarati Taiaroa spoke with us about Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, the largest exhibition in Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki's 132 year history. Taarati, assistant curator of Māori art at AAG, discussed the exhibition's development and conceptual propositions. Later on we had a conversation with Natasha Ratuva and Hōhua Ropate Kurene about Inside the wave are ocean bodies, their exhibition on Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust's Moana Wall. 

This week we talk to Amal Samaha about the response to the Mercy Pictures exhibition People of Colour. Samaha recently wrote an article about the same subject for the Spinoff and calls for artists move on from sheer provocation and start saying something worthwhile. We also speak with artist Tanya Edwards, who is on the line from Tonga. We hear a bit about what she has been up to since the borders shut, amd the show "Koloa: Fafine, ‘Aati, Mo e Tekinolosia / Women, Art, and Technology" which opened at Artspace yesterday.