Standing Room Only for Sunday 25 October 2020

 

12:15 Kāpiti Arts Trail turns 20

For 20 years now, locals and visitors to the Kāpiti coast north of Wellington have been invited into  artists' studios as part of the region's annual Art Trail. Several hundred artists and craftspeople will have their work on show for the 20th trail.

Many have taken part for years,  and there are some new up and comers signing up for the first time, representing pretty much every art form you could imagine, from painting and sculpture, to felting and tattooing.

12:30 Graham Bennett: Around Every Circle 

A sculpture made out of steel girders salvaged from the wrecked World Trade Center and the series of imperceptively moving structures that stand outside the Christchurch Art Gallery, are two of Graham Bennett's best known public artworks.

He's long been concerned about environmental degradation and has often created works highlighting this over the last five decades - and you can expect more from him in the future. A new book Around Every Circle records his body of work so far, along with essays by writers including his long time friend John Freeman-Moir.

Graham Bennett uses a multitude of materials in his sculptures, he's worked with engineers to create many moving pieces and more recently is exploring 3D scanning. Some works so new they didn't make it into the book are about to go on show at the Christchurch Art Gallery in an exhibition called Seeking a Balance.

1:10 At The Movies

This week on At The Movies we're obsessed with relationships. Robert Kelly reviews Miss Juneteenth and The More You Ignore Me. Robert also interviews the duo who wrote, directed and starred in American festival season hit The Climb Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. 

1:33 The Witching Hours brings the radio play to the stage

Foley - creating sound effects for stage and screen - is one of the skills under threat from the digital age, where you can find most sounds you want with a quick search online. But there are people who still do things the old fashioned way, and live foley is a big feature of an upcoming stage show called The Witching Hours. 

It's something of a Halloween tradition in the Capital but the live shows aren't restricted to the Bats Theatre audiences.thanks to streaming and platforms and all that jazz. Each night is brand-new with two never-before-heard spooky, side-splitting tales with a very special 90 minute Halloween Spooktacular on Saturday 31 October.

Lynn speaks to writer Uther Dean and to the producer Eleanor Strathern.

1:40 Cora-Allan Whitcliff wins CNZ award

An artist who's helping to keep  traditional Niuean bark cloth painting,  hiapo, alive is one of the recipients of this year's Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards.

Cora-Allan Wickliffe who's of Niuean and Māori descent has been awarded the 10-thousand dollar  Pacific Heritage Artist Award for her work to revive hiapo, creating both traditional pieces and contemporary works to go on show in galleries. She's also one of the McCahon house artists in residence for 2021, and is the Curator and Exhibitions Manager at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Auckland.

1:55 Tusiata Avia - Savage Colonisers Book 

Hot off the Press - Black Lives Matter and the Coronavirus both make an appearance in the latest poetry collection from Tusiata Avia - who's also celebrating being named a 2020 Arts Foundation Laureate.

Tusiata completed the collection during lockdown and wanted to have her say through her poetry on these and other issues from colonisation and white privilege to Manus Island refugees and being wrongly accused of shoplifting at a book shop.

2:06 The Laugh Track - Al Reid 

This week Lynn is joined for the Laugh Track by comedian, composer and podcaster Al Reid. He takes Lynn for a journey through British panel shows, American stage comics and New Zealand musical comedy. He also talk to Lynn about his podcast about mental health: You're going to die in bed. 

2:25 Young game developer turns his eye to film 

Ali Soltanian Fard Jahromiis a game developer and film maker who's getting international attention, including for his 3D video game Invasion Resistance 2 that's getting great reviews on Steam - the  largest gaming platform for PC.

The Aucklander's animated short film Vampria: The Toothless Vampire has won several awards - he made it with the help of his younger sister Fatimah.

2:40 John Newton: Escape Path Lighting 

Rock Oyster Island is the home that writer John Newton populates with a bizarre community of characters for his new satirical verse novel, Escape Path Lighting.

Here we meet a fugitive poet, a Spanish speaking parrot, a dissolute musician and a psychoanalyst, among others. John, who's this year's Burns Fellow at Otago University, has several poetry collections and non fiction books to his name but Escape Path Lighting is something new.

2:49 Diane Wesh - Black Creatives Aotearoa

Diane Wesh has helmed a series of interviews with African-Caribbean creatives based here and set up a new digital directory identifying Black-owned businesses around the world using New Zealand IT expertise. Diane Wesh's time in this country is coming to an end but she's made her mark. During the lockdown she worked with Kiwi based tech team Webwiz on the directory called Got Blacklisted and presented live streamed interviews for  Black Creatives Aotearoa - BCA - for the Blackout Series. 

3:06 Drama at 3 - The Gullibles 

Lynn Freeman here on Standing Room Only and our Classic Drama is Part 1 of  The Gullibles, by Joe Musaphia where our editor-under-seige. Ray Marbles, has enough on his plate without taking on a new member of staff - especially when it's the boss's daughter. But there are more surprises in store for Ray and his team, including a very special personal investigation requested by the boss.