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This week's stories

Sculpting the future of mining
Nicholas Mangan is the son of a miner who explores mining, the environment and even the global political economy in his sculptures and videos. Nicholas's series about the Pacific island of Nauru's phosphate mining industry is owned by Te Papa, but it's currently on loan to the Dowse Art Gallery in Lower Hutt for as part of an exhibition called Limits to Growth. Lynn Freeman talks to Nicholas about the exhibition, which also compares a new form of mining - mining for bitcoins - with the ancient Rai stone money of the Micronesian island of Yap.
Aug 27, 2017 02:50 pm

Jazz on a winter's weekend
Nigel Patterson honed his keyboard and composition skills playing with seminal New Zealand bands The Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties. But his love of jazz saw him form The Nigel Patterson Quartet back in 2007. His compositions acknowledge the work of jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington, but they also veer off in edgier directions. The quartet is gearing up for a concert at the upcoming Jazz in Martinborough festival on September 2, and Nigel talks to Lynn Freeman about the changing face of jazz.
Aug 27, 2017 02:40 pm

The viola gets a rare moment in the spotlight
The mellow-toned viola is often overshadowed in a string ensemble - but not this week, as Wellington to hosts the 2017 International Viola Congress. It will feature dozens of events over five days, involving musicians from more than 20 countries, and including concerts, lectures, master-classes and panel discussions.
Aug 27, 2017 02:30 pm

British artist John Stezaker and the art of collage
He's a great example of an artist hanging in there, waiting for their big break. For British artist John Stezaker the break came in 2011 when he held a retrospective of work he's been producing since the 1970s. John cuts out images from the past - actor head-shots, film stills and vintage postcards - then creates collages that are often disturbing and genre-bending. His first exhibition in New Zealand, Lost World, is showing at the City Gallery Wellington, before traveling to the Govett Brewster in New Plymouth and the Christchurch Art Gallery. He tells Lynn Freeman that even after all these year of cutting up photographs, it still sometimes feels like he's cutting through flesh:
Aug 27, 2017 01:45 pm

Getting indigenous - and important - stories on stage
Four Maori playwrights are making the most of a new opportunity to workshop and hone their scripts. They've been picked for a new developmental programme at Auckland's Te Pou Theatre - based on an Australian scheme to encourage indigenous theatre. Aroha Awarau, Maraea Rakuraku, Krystal Lee Brown, and Jason Te Mete explore some tough issues in their plays - youth suicide, the death of a child, the former "gay panic" defence in court.
Aug 27, 2017 01:33 pm

The Talented Mr Bungay
Mike Bungay QC represented many of this country's highest profile criminals with an enthusiam and flamboyance that earned him a reputation - and enemies. His turbulent personal and professional life are the subject of a new five- part TVNZ drama series, Dear Murderer. Bungay believed everyone accused of a crime deserved a defence - well, almost everyone - and took on cases no one else wanted to touch. Lynn Freeman talks to star Mark Mitchinson, who plays Mike Bungay, and to crack screenwriter John Banas, who adapted the book written by Mike Bungay's last wife, Ronda.
Aug 27, 2017 12:45 pm

One Hundred Small Objects
Telling the social history of New Zealand in 100 tiny objects was the challenge set for the woman who oversees New Zealand's biggest collection of Ephemera. Barbara Lyon from the Alexander Turnbull Library sorted through thousands of everyday objects like tram tickets, drivers' licences and protest badges to create a new exhibition called Humble; the life of 100 small objects. Barbara talks to Lynn Freeman about the challenge she was set for the exhibition, which opens in the National Library in Wellington this week.
Aug 27, 2017 12:16 pm

Older stories
A Very Trumpian Streetcar
C K Stead turns to the blogosphere
Bookshops are still thriving in Melbourne
Generations of Chinese New Zealanders
A Yorkshire Brokeback Mountain?
Kiwis at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017
Art Crime

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