Circuit Cast

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