Apr 13, 2022 Metro Arts
Kia ora!
I hope you’re in high spirits, and if not you should be because we are entering into a bunch of short work weeks in a row and who doesn’t love a short week. In the theme of short weeks, I’m going to also keep this introduction short, mostly because the only thing I’m really thinking about right now is how much butter I can fit onto a hot cross bun and how quickly I can finish Severance (see recommendations).
While I have you, have you seen the Metro homepage lately? Metro Arts and its friend Metro Eats has its own newsletter section with a sign up box, which looks pretty special. I’m assuming if you’ve received this you’re on the Metro Arts list, but can I suggest that you also sign up to Metro Eats written by our food editor Jean Teng. Totally worth it for keeping up to date in things food around the city.
Do you have a show, event or release between June and August? If so, I would love to include it in the Calendar for our next Metro issue. Let me know here.
Happy Easter!
— Lana
Reckons
This week I’m going to give my reckons on Nathan Joe: Homecoming Poems and Ultimately Lacks Polish with Freya Daly Sadgrove two Moving Portraits, a couple of new documentary films by Going West released over the weekend.
With lines such as “maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s white supremacy” and “maybe I’m just a slut for stockholm syndrome”, Nathan Joe: Homecoming Poems is a must watch. The moving portrait is a three part poetry triptych exploring various journeys of homing. Across each performance is a reckoning with race, sexuality and growing up in Christchurch. But rather than lingering in personal traumas, he reflexively meets his lived experience with his own reflexive maturity which results in a satisfying watch. Special mention to Joe’s stellar outfits which necessitate their own acknowledgment.
“There are lots and lots of poems, lots of them are bad” Freya Daly Sadgrove tells us in her moving portrait, Ultimately Lacks Polish with Freya Daly Sadgrove. The short film is a funny and captivating insight to the self-professed lowbrow artist, where we move between poetry performances and the mundane realities of being a poet, including waiting for notification of Creative New Zealand funding results. Every artist in the country knows the suspending feeling of waiting on results day, the spiralling wheel that makes the art go round. Watch for the laughs, but stick around for the happy ending.
Watch both Moving Portraits on the Going West Writers Festival website here. Pay what you want to support Aotearoa literature.
Recommendations
My recommendations this week are heavily TV influenced (as in almost exclusively) and I give no apologies.
We are four episodes into Atlanta, and my first reaction is WTF. It has much more of a Get Out/Lovecraft Country vibe that I was prepared for, and so every episode leaves me a little in shock but not in a bad way. Donald Glover is a genius, 110% recommend.
Also I am not too sure how I am feeling about the latest season on Bridgerton. It doesn’t feel as morish as the first one, or as Jean said in the office – a lot of sexual tension but not a lot of sex. We are definitely team Kate here though. Would recommend it just so you can cross that off the list.
Late to the party but am half way through Severance and I am triggered and disturbed but also engrossed. I re-signed up to Apple TV just to watch it, which is saying something. Highly recommend just so you can join the rest of us millennials performing TV criticism a la Freudian self-psychoanalysis as an attempt to unpack our obsession with work and complicated moral crises.
Also highly recommend this new music video for Back Up by Ruby Du directed by Tom Grut. And also Coco Solid’s Aunti FM which can be heard at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (don’t forget to take the free poster!).
Recon
Toro Y Moi’s latest album MAHAL out now.
Matrilineal
Tui Emma Gillies, Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows & Aroha Heilala Gillies, ‘Uhila Nai, Jalaina Hitchen, Loleni Selesele, Salle Tamatoa & Tunaga Funaki
Depot Artspace
1 April – 4 May 2022
New season of shows at Studio One Toi Tū featuring Linda Vaʻaelua, Wai-O-Rongo, Sur Collective, Judith Milner, Ana Travaglio
7 April – 5 May 2022
Neke Moa artist talk
Season
12pm, 13 April
Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
15 April – 18 September
$24.50 per adult
TERRAPOLIS
Q Theatre, The Loft
19 – 23 April
