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).

CIRCUIT CAST

Episode 101: Tendai Mutambu, Serena Bentley, Lisa Berndt

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?

Episode 100: Yona Lee, Gavin Hipkins, Amy Howden-Chapman

“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”.

Episode 99: Christopher Ulutupu

“ .. 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.

Episode 98: Stephanie Beth And Emma Fitts

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.

Episode 97: Steve Carr And Christian Lamont

“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.

Episode 96: Not Today… Can you decolonise an art gallery?

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

Episode 95: Connor Fitzgerald and Xi Li

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

CIRCUIT Cast 94: Popular Glory Episode 3: Neihana Gordon-Stables and Daniel Sanders

“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.

Episode 93: Alex Monteith

"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

Episode 92: Rangituhia Hollis

"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/

Episode 91: Martin Awa Clark Langdon, Rebecca Hobbs, Qiane Matata-Sipu

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)

Episode 90: Laura Duffy And Aliyah Winter

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

Episode 88: Revisiting HADHAD Part 3: The schism of Liberalism

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

Episode 88: Revisiting HADHAD - Part 2: Language, Technology and Totalitarianism

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

Episode 88: Revisiting HADHAD part 1: Shooting the film, Horror as genre

CIRCUIT CAST is a fortnightly podcast produced by CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand, a distributor of artists' moving image works. www.circuit.org.nz. Each month on the CIRCUIT podcast host Mark Amery is joined by local guest curators, writers and artists to dissect recent exhibitions and events in the world of local and international moving image.

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CIRCUIT CAST

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