CIRCUIT CAST

In part 3 of the series Sites of Connection Dani McIntosh speaks to artist Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Haua, Tainui/Waikato, Ngāti Waewae, Waitaha, Kai Tahu). Often juxtaposing poetic text with handheld moving images, Hana's video work addresses the tension between industry and sacred whenua; the presence of deep time and new parenthood. 0:00 Introduction 1:00 Hana discusses her video 'I saw the mountain erupt' (2023); working with an essay by her partner Morgan Godfery; the town of Kawerau as formerly one of NZ's wealthiest towns and now one of the poorest, and also the town as the site of Māori pūrākau. 5:54 Dani asks; Why entwine the writing with the moving image? 8:09 Dani introduces the video work A eulogy to love (2019); Dani asks why juxtapose shots of Italian actress Monica Vitti with the landscape in Aotearoa? Hana explains the video was shot in many sites including Aotearoa, Portugal and other European locations. She discusses Vitti as an image of an “hysterical woman”, and the ongoing theme in her practice of "the tension of industry versus caring for the whenua (landscape)”. 13.08 Dani asks about the line “I will not be afraid despite the fear tumbling through my body”. 15:50 Hana on how parenthood has affected their work. Se discusses 'deep time', the relationship between the human and non-human and the whakataukī 'Ka Mua, Ka Muri' (walking backwards into the future). 20:00 Hana on David Lynch's movie Eraserhead (1977). 23:00 Hana discusses and the writing of New Zealand author Keri Hulme (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe), which was part of her work with Ke te Pai Press (with Morgan Godfery), shown in the group exhibition Matarau 24:41 Working with musician Ruby Solly (Kai Tahu) 27:24 End

"Dwelling in the void space" — a conversation between Selina Ershadi and Dani McIntosh, the second part of the CIRCUIT Cast series Sites of Connection. In this podcast, artist Selina Ershadi discusses three films: Hollywood Ave (2017), Amator (2019) and The hands also look (2020), alongside a new work in progress, The Blue Dome (forthcoming). In conversation with artist Dani McIntosh, Selina reflects on navigating personal and family histories as guided by Chantal Akerman, Maya Deren and Derek Jarman; ideas of dwelling, homemaking and displacement; oral storytelling traditions and the poetic potential of decentering the visual.

A conversation between artists James Tapsell-Kururangi and Dani McIntosh on the metaphoric and poetic potential of the moving image.

A conversation with writers Tina Makereti, Gregory Kan, and Gwynneth Porter, on the dynamic possibilities for writing to respond to art beyond the essay, chaired by Thomasin Sleigh. Recorded at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery.

How can artists in the regions discover and experiment with emergent technologies? In this pod host Mark Williams speaks to Maggie Buxton, the Director of AwhiWorld, a Northland—based creative technology studio. AwhiWorld's latest project is Bios, an installation at Whangārei Art Museum which presents an interactive research and practice area for artists to experiment with VR, 3d projection mapping, interactive sensors, E-textiles and organic materials. Bios runs until 18 June. https://awhiworld.com/ BIOS was produced in collaboration with ThoTho and in partnership with a number of community partners. It was funded by Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

In this pod Horowhenua-based artist Leala Faelseuga speaks to Mark Williams about her new work Vessel: Dissolution | It's in the milk. Commissioned for Masons Screen, It's in the milk reflects on "visceral motherhood", photography and memory. Leala discusses her iterative processes, what it means to exhibit personal work in public space, and inspiration gathered from the films of MD Brown and her collective 7558.

"The air was sucked out of the room". In this final podcast for 2022 we discuss the year that was with artist Judy Darragh, Gloriana Meyers (TAUTAI) and Andrew Clifford (Te Uru). As well as Judy nominating the Academy Awards as the new performance art spectacle, we discuss memorable shows, new artists, spaces, and publishing, and our hopes and dreams for 2023.

Sampling, reuse and copying have long been strategies and approaches in artistic practice and is a thread you can follow through art history. But who owns art? Should culture be under copyright? What are the limits of fair use? These questions are explored in the recent artworks exhibited at City Gallery Wellington in Josh Azzarella: Triple Feature. Picking up and expanding on these conversations, Josh and artists Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Eugene Hansen discuss this and more. Moderated by Caitlin Lynch.

In this conversation host Mark Williams meets three artists who discuss the intersection of filmic technologies with living world of mauri, whakapapa and spiritual practice. Nova Paul's Rākau (2022) is a 16mm film of Pūriri trees. Paul created a film developer solution from foliage discarded by the trees themselves, bringing the image from negative to postive, creating a cyclical portrait of the Pūriri. Jamie Berry's Whakapapa Algorhythms (2021) is a montage of archival home movies, recent digital animation and a constant pulsing score which was written by sequencing the artists own DNA. Jae Hoon Lee's Dark Matter (2022) continues his preoccupation with new technology as a vehicle to transform organic matter, presenting a series of pulsing coals, crystal and other mineral deposits. This conversation was recorded for the 2022 Screen Studies Association of New Zealand conference The Materiality of Screen Media.

"What are the legacies that make us who we are?" In this pod we discuss Legacies, CIRCUIT's 2022 programme of artist cinema commissions; featuring new films by Edith Amituanai, Martin Sagadin, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai, Pati Tyrell, Sriwhana Spong. CIRCUIT Curator-at-large May Adadol Ingwanaij and Thai artist Ukrit Sa-nguanhai (Todd) speak to host Mark Williams about May's curatorial process, Ukrit's film on a Cold War-era mobile cinema propaganda unit, and the other artists works in the programme.

Curator Tendai Mutambu talks to Sorawit Songsataya and Ary Jansen about their works in Otherwise-image-worlds, a group exhibition presented by CIRCUIT in partnership with Te Uru. Otherwise-image-worlds brings together five newly commissioned artworks from artists working in animation. Working against the commercial demand for spectacle and efficiency, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Juliet Carpenter, Tanu Gago, Ary Jansen and Sorawit Songsataya, all expand and reconfigure the conventions of image-making, asking what modes of interaction, imagination, attention, and refusal animation can cultivate. This conversation was recorded at Te Uru.

Sione Faletau discusses his practice of translating the traditional Tongan practice of kupesi (patterns) into digital video, using site-specific audio recordings and traditional Tongan music as the basis for generating images. He discusses his upcoming shows at Gus Fisher Gallery and Masons Screen. Interviewer: Robbie Handcock.

Sandy Gibbs speaks to Thomasin Sleigh about a new body of work made over six years in response to the 1968 Olympics, a project made between Aotearoa, Mexico and Germany which used failure as a generative process. She discusses older women taking the space, critiquing the idea of competition in sport and art, and using restaging as a video art methodology.

In this pod Artspace Aotearoa director Remco de Blaaij discusses his final curatorial project at the gallery, Ex-post, a follow up to his 2017 exhibition Ex-ante. Looking back on Artspace's past 5 years he reflects on the impact of shifting the institution to street level premises, opening a cinema, and the need for future Arts leadership to embrace indigenous perspectives. Hosted by Mark Williams.

“We've needed our artists this year  more than ever, to fall into other ways of seeing reality" - Nigel Borell What was 2021? Host Robbie Handcock discusses the year that was with guests Abby Cunnane, Sophie Davis and Nigel Borell. The panel discuss memorable exhibitions, the power of a publication, bodily vibrations, discovering the South Island, best moving image works and new discoveries. With shout outs, mentions and commendations for; Bridget Reweti, Brett Graham, Sonya Lacey, Ana Iti, Ralph Hotere, Turumeke Harrington, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, Māori Moving Image, Te Uru, City Gallery Wellington, Hanihiva Rose. Abby Cunnane is Director of The Physics Room, in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Sophie Davis is a Curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Nigel Borell is an independent curator based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Artists Moving Image in the pandemic era; a glut of compromise or new horizons for exhibition and accessibility? Three curators and arts professionals discuss a shift from showing in small towns, major cities and institutions to the online space, and what the future might bring. Hosted by Thomasin Sleigh with Tendai Mutambu (former curator for Berwick Fim and Media Arts Festival, UK), Serena Bentley (ACMI Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne) and Lisa Berndt (Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth).

In this edition of CIRCUIT Cast host Thomasin Sleigh meets artists Yona Lee, Amy Howden-Chapman and Gavin Hipkins. The advent of the pandemic has seen a rush of material going online. While this has created opportunities for artists and audiences, all sculptural conditions for the moving image are now flattened by the browser and computer speakers. How do we feel about these new conditions for exhibition and viewing? What challenges and opportunities do they represent for artists and how are they affecting practice?

“People who are trying to oppress you hate the fact you're having an awesome time” - Christopher Ulutupu In this pod host Robbie Handcock speaks to artist Christopher Ulutupu about his production process, which draws on the visual sheen of commercial film-making, but takes a sharp turn to embrace improvisiation, and collaboration with friends and family. Chris discusses “what queerness is for me…” and “reimagining spaces I occupied as a kid”.

“ .. it was really important to go for the silent woman” – Stephanie Beth In this podcast Thomasin Sleigh meets pioneering feminist film-maker Stephanie Beth and artist Emma Fitts to discuss two documentaries made by Stephanie in 1977/80 which sought to portray women's lives and potential. Beth discusses her remarkable journey from a fine arts undergraduate asked to make a film, to self-organising an 18 month screening tour of New Zealand, in which she showed the film 100 times, each screening followed by a discussion in which only women were allowed to speak. Emma Fitts responds to the work and discusses her own interest in psychodrama as a strategy for female empowerment.

In this pod Thomasin Sleigh speaks to Steve Carr and Christian Lamont about Fading to the Sky at Auckland's Te Uru Gallery, an exhibition that began as a response to Carr's mothers passing, and through a collaboration with his former student Lamont, evolved into a deeper narrative of loss.

“I can only speak from my aspiration of how I want to see the world and the art institution that I want to be involved in” - Nigel Borrell What is the past, the present moment and potential futures for Māori within the art gallery? Three curators discuss; listen to Nigel Borrell (Pirirākau, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whakatōhea, former curator Māori at Auckland Art Gallery, Puawai Cairns (Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Ranginui, and Ngāiterangi), Director Audience and Insight at Te Papa and Karl Chitham (Ngā Puhi, Te Uriroroi), Director of The Dowse Art Museum. This discussion took place at The Dowse Art Museum as part of The Dowse Speaker Series, presented by The Dowse Foundation – a series of talks which celebrate and reflect on the past 50 years of remarkable ideas at the Dowse. This talk was originally presented at the Dowse Art Museum on 10 April 2020. With thanks to the Dowse and the speakers.

In this podcast Moya Lawson speaks to Xi Li and Connor Fitzgerald, two emerging artists working in digital space via avatars, text and interactivity. The artists discuss the capability of the avatar to host a range of intentions and possibilities, moving beyond the constraints of physical embodiment. Xi Li is an artist based in Auckland whose work explores philosophical frameworks through mediums including video, 3D animation, VR and game-design. Watch a sample of Brain Island (2019-ongoing) on CIRCUIT - https://www.circuit.org.nz/film/brain-island-sampler Connor Fitzgerald is a non-binary artist based in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara Wellington, with a multi-disciplinary practice in video, writing and installation. See Connor’s page on CIRCUIT - https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/connor-fitzgerald

In the third part of our podcast series Popular Glory: Contemporary Queerness and the Moving Image, host Robbie Handcock speaks to Neihana Gordon-Stables and Daniel John Corbett Sanders. On this pod they discuss using humour to offset the media focus on queer tragedy; queer generational disconnect as seen through the evolution of cruising practices and sex-oriented networks; plus the complexities of community building and safety. Watch Dan's work on CIRCUIT: https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/daniel-sanders See Neihana's work on CIRCUIT: https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/neihana-gordon-stables

“I was thinking about what you think is knowledge, what you find out through machinery, and what you find out through attending to things that you see” - In this episode our Mana Moana Resident Israel Randell talks to Alex Monteith about her new CIRCUIT cinema commission Deep Ocean Currents, premiering 6.30pm Friday 23 October at Pataka.

"I identified with the lion... I liked the idea of killing the King" In this podcast Israel Randell talks to Rangituhia Hollis about his CIRCUIT Artist Cinema Commission Across the face of the Moon (2020) premiering at Pataka 6.30pm Friday 23 October. Listen to Rangituhia discuss his iterative practice, Japanese cinema and the battle to find a place "to live our lives”. All this plus a new anagram - ‘TIWID WHYD?’ Photo of Rangituhia Hollis by Raymond Sagapolutele

"What's good for Māori is good for everyone" - Qiane Matata-Sipu How do Māori and Pākeha relate to, and value whenua? What are their differing values and how do they intersect? What is the connection between generosity and Tino Rangitiratanga? In this conversation artists Martin Awa Clarke Langdon (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Whāwhākia, Ngāti Hikairo, Kāi Tahu), Rebecca Hobbs and Qiane Matata-Sipu (Te Wai-o-hua, Waikato-Tainui) discuss art, activism and mutual wellbeing for Māori and Tauiwi. The conversation takes place in the context of recent disputes over Ihumātao, a North Island volcanic site currently the subject of dispute between land developers and mana whenua members whose families have resided in Ihumātao for many generations. To learn more about Ihumātao: S.O.U.L - Save Our Unique Landscape - https://www.protectihumatao.com/

In the second part of our podcast series Popular Glory: Contemporary Queerness and the Moving Image, host Robbie Handcock speaks to Laura Duffy and Aliyah Winter about recent collaborations, and how to image queer lives. The pod begins with Winter and Duffy discussing the process of working with queer youth to create an exhibition for Te Uru Gallery. Duffy talks about her recent collaboration with Owen Connors at Blue Oyster Art Project Space entitled DUIRVIAS, and Winter discusses her research-driven processes, and subsequent performative gestures, which seek to summon and acknowledge queer histories. Image: Aliyah Winter, Rage (2020)

Revisiting HADHAD - Part 3: The schism of Liberalism In Part 3 of this conversation Sean Grattan and Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió discuss HADHAD as a virus analogous to Covid 19, “something that allows for change” and Sean’s forthcoming project about the contradictions of liberalism. Part 1: Shooting the film, Horror as genre (26:07 mins) Part 2: Language, Technology and Totalitarianism (26:57 mins) Catalogue Notes 00:00 (MS): "Is HADHAD the quintessential revolutionary figure?" 02:00 (MS): Makes analogy with HADHAD and Covid 19 - "The virus could be seen in your movie as a positive, something that allows for change...not change within the existing accepted categories but new categories, and I find that really hopeful and really exciting" 03:54 (SG): “There might be a liberal fantasy of being liberated by the other … it’s connected to the oppressive regimes of past liberalism……by fact of who I am (a white Western male) I have that with me… ". Discusses Slavoj Žižek's statement that 'the most important step to begin is a ruthless self-critique' 07:00 (MS): "The big takeaway for me from this conversation is the kind of privilege that Art offers… the privilege and joy of being able to ask questions and not resolve them" (SG): Discusses 8 years writing a script which addresses "the fundamental schism of liberalism". Describes the plot of a group of political agitators seeking to establish a utopia. Describes the films theme as " … the double sided nature of the liberal ideology….in the one hand you have market liberalism and on the other you have political liberalism… but they’re intertwined… you’re free to do what you want and live the life we choose, but you have to do it within a market economy that essentially has no community or compassion about it…at the same time you have to compete for resources" Discusses eight year script writing process “I think it could still be a relevant work because the screws are getting tightened so much now" 11:30 (MS): Do you think the pandemic has exposed the fallacy of ... the market economy? ... Is your new movie more hopeful?" 13:30 (SG) Discusses the need to resist cyncism. Discusses US/UK liberal politicians of the past 20 years (Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Thatcher / Reagan & Blair / Clinton) “Liberals in power are the ones who deserve the most scrutiny…they’re the enablers…" (MS): "One of the most amazing things about your work is how you’re able to have these Macro level concerns with politics, philosophy, language and society, and yet you’re able to bring them down to earth with characters, plot lines, music and cinemtography" 17:24 End of Part 3

In Part 2 of this conversation Sean Grattan and Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió discuss language, technology and post-humanism in HADHAD. They explore the relationship between white supremacy and technology in the USA in 2020. HADHAD (41:21 mins) Part 1: Shooting the film, Horror as genre (26:07 mins) Part 3: The schism of Liberalism (17:24 mins) Catalogue Notes 00:00 (MS): Continued discussion of David Lynch as counterpoint - "… his movies speak to... the mask of normality in American suburbia...Your film is more about questions of technology, what is the human, and language itself?... What is the risk of accepting that our subjectivity may be be coded in technology?” 04:00 (SG): Language as the pre-eminent tool of communication, but also something hijacked by commercial interests. Notes aspirational commercial slogans ‘Be Yourself, ‘Choose Happiness’ 07:00 (MS): Language, technology and post-humanism. “What you’re saying is language tainted by ideology…in it’s various forms, technological, artistic, natural..." "It’s a deep engagement with the problem of the enlightenment and (the question of) in what way can be become masters of our condition?” (MS) Discusses HADHAD's ambiguous form "Is this thing a projection in their imagination? is this a physical manifestation of language itself? “Is it a concept, is it a metaphor or is it a different type of being?” 12:00 (SG): Describes the HADHAD as … this thing that disrupts but which is potentially creating a new thing…" He discusses evolution. 14:00 (SG) - On the enlightenment; "The idea of progress I find very confusing… establishment powers will manipulate that idea… it can be a very conservative…it can be a tool of oppression” 15:00 (MS) - Discussion on totalitarianism. (MS): "A mode of power where everyone is orientated to 1 way of being, 1 leader, 1 vision, 1 way of communicating." Discusses Frankfurt School philosophers claim that paradoxically the enlightenment had it’s last moment with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, a rationality taken to an extreme. Discusses white supremacy and technology in 2020. “There is a branch of white supremacism - certainly in the US - which has to do with technological evolution, which poses a kind of transhumanism… in a way the movie was prescient…all these things were there in 2012 but since then have become more acute…the technological monopolies have become more acute…white supremacism has become more overt and more dominant” 18:00 (SG) Discusses the current political moment. Describes HADHAD’S arrival in the movie as “a metaphor for how the totalitarian system is untenable” and how the movies extreme rationality is counterpointed with an alterity (HADHAD). 22:47 (SG) Liberalism and Western-style democracy. "Cynicism needs to be resisted at all times…but what we’re living in fosters cynicism… what happened with World War 2, is this what rationality brings us? Is that what liberalism brings us?" 26:57 End of Part 2

In Part 1 of this 3 part conversation Sean Grattan and Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió discuss the making of HADHAD, the relationship with the Horror genre and the influence of other film-makers and teachers on the making of the work. HADHAD (41:21 mins) Part 2: Language, Technology and Totalitarianism (26:07 mins) Part 3: The schism of Liberalism (17:24 mins) Catalogue Notes: 00:00 Welcome and Introduction from Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió 02:00 Background to making the work at CalArts in Los Angeles (2011/12). Shoot and location 04:36 Discussion of HADHAD’s high production values. Working on a budget with student labour whilst maintaining the film’s sense of horror and tension. Directing actors. 08:40 On the characters robotic personas. (MS) - “One of the ruses of the movie is that the characters may or may not already be Cyborgs… the tightness becomes a metaphor for the characters belief in the coming technological singularity…everything is stripped down to the bare essentials so there’s no room for human expression… technological determinism is so profound” 10:00 What is this movie about? How to describe what happens? (SG) Describes the plot and the tropes of a traditional horror movie "A group of people, they may be strangers, they’ve gone in vacation to some kind of isolated environment...normally in a horror movie there’s some kind of transgressions, the teenagers will be punished…" Discusses removing stylistic elements of horror and making the intruder “more absurd” 13:00 (MS) - Characters and dialogue. “You remove the emotion, which you could argue is the core of horror..the emotional reaction is what draws audience to this kind of movie…the emotion doesn’t disappear, it gets heightened…why did you so that and why is it so successful?” 15:30 (SG) - Influence of theatre, analytical thinking and English upbringing on the dialogue. "The challenge was using the analytical script on to some other kind of cinematic framework...The tension gets created from putting elements together that don’t work together cinematically in a conventional sense… there’s this kind of humanity that I can’t scrub out…” 18:30 (MS) - Talks about the film discarding emotion but being “saturated with emotion” 21:00 (SG) Talks about Directors, Theorists and Teachers that inpsired the work; David Lynch, James Benning, Claire Denis, Charles Gaines who "rewrote my story of art" . The need to create ”a philosophy that’s embodied”, discusses merging cinema and critical theory to understand “…who are humans, what are they doing, what is our method of living, what is the dynamic between power and subjectivity?” 26:07 End of Part 1

In this interview film-maker M D Brown discusses three short films he made between 2000-2004 inspired by the stream of consciousness technique of modernist European writers including James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Each film featured the voice of a lone male, ruminating on late night memories of murky events and personal relationships whose character has been shaped by the passage of time. Using a visual technique of fleeting images interrupted by black, Brown sought to evoke the nature of memory as a subjective series of affective images flickering across the mind's eye. Interviewed by Mark Williams. Watch the films on CIRCUIT: https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/m-d-brown

Popular Glory: Contemporary Queerness and the Moving Image is a new four-part podcast series hosted by Pōneke artist Robbie Handcock, in which he interviews a range of Aotearoa artists working in moving image who employ queerness as identity, content and strategy. In Episode One, we speak to Berlin based Tāmaki Makaurau artist ZK Steiner-Fox. Here ZK speaks about their move from installation and sculpture through to video and performance, their experience at the Vada Artists Residency in California, and their reference to genre film as a departure point for exploring queer identities. Leading from their work Popular Glory, which came out of the residency, we discuss how the horror movie format—with all its tensions as well as its tropes—is used in ZK’s work to examine the impact of queer coding, classic Hollywood morality and the everyday terror of navigating contemporary media. ZK has previously shown at Artspace Aotearoa, Window Gallery, play_station, and was part of CIRCUIT’s presentation at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival 2020.   Robbie Handcock is a Pōneke based artist and facilitator at play_station gallery. He is also co-founder of the vlog Glad We Did That with co-host and fellow artist Elisabeth Pointon.

In this pod Moya Lawson speaks with Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka and Martin Awa Clarke Langdon; two artists currently exhibiting public artworks in Wellington which celebrate Matariki, a star cluster used traditionally for ancestral navigation, timing the seasons and a marker of the Māori new year. Listen to Martin discuss his illuminated stills on the Courtenay Place lightboxes, and Tanya discuss her video on Masons Screen. Image: Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka, Kohatu Tipua (detail) 2020. Commissioned by CIRCUIT with the support of Wellington City Council

In moments of change there is a window to act. How do we organise our politics around the new situation? How do we organise our institutions? What role should artists play in this? How do we move beyond short term solutions to long term ones? And if the next crisis - Climate Change - is going to change daily life for all of us, what do we need to put in place *now* for the long term? This podcast brings together three artists - Judy Darragh, Ary Jansen, Lisa Reihana - to discuss the future of art after Covid 19, and a new advocacy group for artists, Arts Makers Aotearoa. Hosted by Mark Williams. http://www.artsmakersaotearoa.nz/ Lisa Reihana is a multi-disciplinary artist who represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale in 2017 with the large scale video installation in Pursuit of Venus [infected]. https://www.lisareihana.com Judy Darragh is an artist who uses found objects to create sculptural assemblages. She has also worked in paint and film. https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/judy-darragh Ary Jansen is an artist and musician based in Auckland. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInGwvU7ljDFAouv7Wzm9Cg https://aryjansen.bandcamp.com/

Is time out the most productive time of all? Darcell Apelu talks to Mark Williams about a recent residency in Yorkshire spent contemplating her practice. She also discusses a trip to her father's homeland of Niue, two resulting videos, and previous performance works which drew on the body, ideas of 'otherness' and her career as an international wood chopper. Still from Saw (2011) detail, Darcell Apelu Watch Darcell's video on CIRCUIT here: http://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/darcell-apelu

"(HIV) doesn’t have agency, it’s not alive like we are, it’s just a piece of programming, but.. in empathising with it, I have gained a greater respect for it" - John Walter In this podcast Mark Williams talks to John Walter, a British artist exhibiting in Aotearoa as part of the group show Queer Algorithms now on at Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland until 2 May. Resisting labels, binaries and the need to categorise, Queer Algorithms is conceived from an intersectional viewpoint where gender fluidity and identities are understood as always multifarious and in flux. Walter discusses his work in the show which includes the video 'A Virus walks into a bar' (2018).

In this CIRCUIT Cast 2019 review we welcome Becky Hemus (Writer), Remco de Blaaij (Director, Artspace Aotearoa), Judy Darragh (artist) and Lucinda Bennett (writer). Our panellists gather to discuss the notable shows, artists, works and provocations of the Aotearoa artworld in the year past; in the moving image and every other discipline you can name. Among the highlights celebrated are Māori Moving Image: An Open Archive, works by Natasha Matila-Smith, Sorawit Songsataya, Selina Ershadi and Ruth Buchanan's ambitious response to the Govett Brewster's 50th anniversary.

“I’m interested in what Pacific work looks like situated in a lens of popular culture” - Tanu Gago Savage in the Garden is a new work by Tanu Gago, currently showing as part of Personal Space, CIRCUIT’s 2019 Artist Cinema Commissions, curated by Serena Bentley. Here Tanu talks to Mark Amery about a practice based on countering false narratives of Pasifika masculinity and overcoming cultural dislocation to build communities at home and internationally. Apologies for the quality of the audio for the first 4 minutes of this recording.

On the phone from Sydney Chevron Hassett talks to Mark Amery about Mauri Tū, The First Breath of Light (2019) showing as part of Home Movies, this Saturday 28 September 10am-4pm in Wellington. The work visualises the sunrise over Te Moana Nui a Kiwi (The Pacific Ocean) at Rangitikuia, East Cape just North of Gisborne, into the lands of the Ngāti Porou. Hassett describes the video as "a continuous loop in a poetic repetition, like a series of kowhaiwhai designs scrolling the roof the wharenui, intricately expressing sacred narratives of the Ngāti Porou...The light englightens you of the past, as the warmth connects us to the past and the waves prepare you for the future." Still from Mauri Tū, The First Breath of Light (2019) from the series The Children of Māui

"A lot of confessions we make are performative" - Serena Bentley In this podcast Melbourne-based curator Serena Bentley talks to Mark Amery about Personal Space, CIRCUIT's 2019 programme of Artist Cinema Commissions. Personal Space features new works by Natasha Matila-Smith, Campbell Patterson, Janet Lilo, Tanu Gago and Atong Atem. Each artist was asked by Bentley to make a short film which responded to the questions 'What do we call 'home'? What are our shared values? What does home look like?' 'Personal Space' premieres 6.30pm, Friday 4 October at the Newtown Community Centre, Wellington. Free Admission. More info: http://www.circuit.org.nz/project/personal-space-circuit-artist-cinema-commissions-2019

"There's always the question of authoring ... I like the shared space of co-production" - Alex Monteith In this career-spanning interview with Mark Williams, Alex Monteith discusses Coastal Flows / Coastal Incursions (2019). This ongoing installation project brings together representatives of Iwi, South Island museums and researchers nationwide to revisit a collection of archaeological material from Te Mimi o Tū Te Rakiwhānoa (Fiordland coastal and marine area). Monteith also discusses the working methods behind her 2005 feature film on the Irish Troubles, Chapter and Verse, and a subsequent shift towards works based around surfing, motorcycles and military aircraft. Image: Coastal Flows / Coastal Incursions (production still), 2014. Alex Monteith, Sportsman Cave, Tamatea (Dusky Sound). Photo: Sarah Munro

A new roundtable podcast brings together three Auckland gallery directors; Gabriela Salgado (Te Tuhi), Lisa Beauchamp (Gus Fisher) and Charlotte Huddlestone (St Paul St Gallery), to discuss recent strategies for sustainability and audience engagement. Drawing on perspectives both local and international, the panel discuss the role of University galleries within the institution, reaching out to public space, low wages for artists and hosting the odd wedding to pay the bills.

From 30 April-4 May 2019 the Auckland Art Fair expects up to 10,000 people through its doors. What's showing? Who is it for? How does an event like this represent local practice? Does that matter? Host Mark Amery sat down with co-director Stephanie Post, projects curator Francis McWhannell and artist Judy Darragh to discuss what an event like this means for contemporary New Zealand art. 
artfair.co.nz/

Peter Wareing is a New Zealand artist who has spent most of the past 30 years working in the USA and now in the UK. His exhibition Suspended Agency at the Govett Brewster examines a distinctly modern condition: individual and collective numbness in the face of increasing political and economic insecurity. In this interview Wareing talks with CIRCUIT Director and the shows curator Mark Williams about Suspended Agency, an ambitious installation, shot over 3 years in Dagenham, a London suburb which which voted overwhelmingly for Brexit. Suspended Agency runs 6 Apr — 21 Jul 2019 at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth. Photo by Sam Hartnett

“the problem is with bureaucrats who are preventing us from seeing the content” - Luke Fowler Recently in Wellington for the opening of the Adam Art Gallery installation Passages, Scottish film-maker Luke Fowler sat down with Mark Williams at City Gallery Wellington for a wide-ranging interview on filming portraits of experimental musicians, the revolutionary potential of the past, the responsibility of the spectator, the plight of millenials and bypassing gatekeepers. He begins by discussing ‘Pilgrimage from Scattered Points’ (2006), his film about the English composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981). Recorded at City Gallery Wellington. Passages continues at the Adam Art Gallery until 21 April 2019.

In this end of year podcast panellists Heather Galbraith, Shannon Te Ao, Simon Gennard join host Mark Amery to discuss the highs and lows of 2018, charting shifting tides, the artworld's 'Complicated Love', and a year of diverse perspectives moving to the centre. Part 1: Personal Highlights of 2018, Trends of the year, Best show. Part 2: Biggest surprises, Best publication, Best writing, Best moving image work Part 2: https://soundcloud.com/circuit-2/2018-eoy-part-2-of-2?in=circuit-2/ Image: Still from Ziarah (2018) Bridget Reweti. Commissioned by CIRCUIT with the support of Creative New Zealand

In this end of year podcast panellists Heather Galbraith, Shannon Te Ao, Simon Gennard join host Mark Amery to discuss the highs and lows of 2018, charting shifting tides, the artworld's 'Complicated Love', and a year of diverse perspectives moving to the centre. Part 1: Personal Highlights of 2018, Trends of the year, Best show. Part 2: Biggest surprises, Best publication, Best writing, Best moving image work Image: Still from Ziarah (2018) Bridget Reweti. Commissioned by CIRCUIT with the support of Creative New Zealand

"The most interesting way to follow an artist is to do the opposite of what they did" This is not film-making. Artists work for cinema was our 2016 programme of Artist Cinema Commissions. As we launch a limited screening season online, we revisit a 2016 podcast interview with curator George Clark, who discusses the legacy and inspiration of conceptual artist Julian Dashper, whose work Clark positioned as a point of response for six artists from New Zealand and Australia.

“What is true to you may not be true to your neighbour.” -Vea Mafile`o Ahead of the premiere of Truth or Consequences, CIRCUIT’s 2018 programme of Artist Cinema Commissions, Vea Mafile`o and Jeremy Leatinu’u discuss responding to curator Erika Balsom’s brief which challenged the artists to consider personal and public ‘realities’. Truth and Consequences premieres 6.30pm, Friday 14 September, Ellen Melville Centre, Pioneer Women's Hall, 1 Freyberg Pl, Auckland, 1000 Tickets from Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/truth-or-consequences-tickets-49316063674 00:00 - Introductions. Mark Amery (MA) Introduces the venue for the recording, the setting, the Wānanga in Mangare. 01:23 - MA: to Jeremy Leatinu’u (JL): “What are you doing here, (Jeremy)?” JA: Discusses learning Te Reo Māori via full immersion, and a subsequently enriched understanding of stories and histories of Aotearoa New Zealand 03:28 - Vea Mafile’o (VM): On her upcoming feature film, her general Film/TV industry background. Describes the place of her Art practice alongside her other work 05:39 - MA: Introduces CIRCUIT’s 2018 Artist Cinema Commissions programme Truth or Consequences. Reads out curator Erika Balsom’s provocation “We’re an empire now and when we act we create our own reality…”. 06:15 - VM: Discusses her video Toa`ipuapuagā (Strength in Suffering) and response to the provocation. Discusses using existing footage of stigmata and question of “Is this real?” 08:07 - MA: Notes international news coverage of the stigmata event 09:08 - VM: “It divided the community, it divided Samoa, some people were for it some people were against it…. she (Toa) was caught in this situation of these events happening to her, out of her control… or are they in her control?” 09:49 - VM: “I’m not an overly religious person…for a lot of Samoan’s, it was a case of ‘Is this good or is this bad?’ For me, it’s a case of ‘Is this real or not real?’’ Discusses the subjects conversion to Catholicism, in order to go to Rome “to get an audience” with the Pope 12:32 - JL: Notes the role of VM’s work in relation to broader media coverage 13:00 - MA: Asks about JL’s response to the curatorial provocation, “Mai i te kei o te waka ki te ihu o te waka” 13:27 - JL: Discusses the influence of the book Nga Iwi O Tainui: The Traditional History of the Tainui People. Makes analogy of between the formal structure of the film (two contradicting accounts of a journey) and his education in Te Reo Māori - “You are introduced to a whole bunch of stories from all over the country, and you’re also introduced to different accounts of the same story” 15:05 - JL: Discusses the visual language of the film, describes “pick(ing) parts of the land that could be potential traces of a part in the story” and the films attempt to “massage the imagination of the (viewer)” 16:30 - MA: Asks about the question of truth versus cultural perspective, language 16:56 - VM: “...Truth is totally dependent on your own perceptions … what is true to you may not be true to your neighbour” 18:36 - ENDS Image: Detail from Toa`ipuapuagā (Strength in Suffering) (2018) Vea Mafile'o

“The terrorist spectacle accommodates a dirtier game underneath” - Johan Grimonprez. On his 24 hour trip to Wellington, New Zealand we caught up Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez to discuss his films Blue Orchids and Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, showing at City Gallery Wellington as part of the exhibition 'Iconography Of Revolt'. Made 20 years apart, Grimonprez describes both films as part of the timeline of 9/11, and the construction of the 'war on terror'. He discusses the historical role of the media before and after the Cold War, and the digital commons as a newly contested space. With host Mark Williams.

“There's something inevitably fascistic about a perfect world” - Stella Brennan. UK academic Sean Cubitt joins Stella Brennan and host Mark Amery to discuss 'Object Permanence', Stella's new solo show at Trish Clark gallery, plus technological utopias and making dialogue with the non-human.