Christchurch City Gallery; Canterbury University Press
NZ$80; $60 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

I CAN’T remember exactly when I became aware of Séraphine Pick’s work, but it was probably around the turn of the new century. What I do remember is that, while I appreciated them as beautifully executed paintings, they didn’t particularly interest me as images – fantastical, surrealist images, which I’ve never been much into as a genre in any medium.

Auckland Town Hall
November 12 | Reviewed by Samuel Holloway

THE VIOLA is a much-neglected instrument. Falling in the string hierarchy between the violins and celli, it has received the attention it deserves from neither composers nor audiences. And it really does deserve attention, with a richer tone than the violin but with the benefits, contra the cello, of a smaller instrument.

By Gavin Hurley
Self-published, NZ$30 | Reviewed by Hanna Scott

WITH AN embossed cover, uncoated paper stocks, and an immediate sense of the three dimensional nature of paper collage, A to Z is both a delightfully tactile and visual experience. Proof, if any were needed that the book is very much alive, and not in any danger of dying an electronic death.

Interview by BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM.

NEW ZEALAND artist Jordan Reyne may go down as one of New Zealand’s most underrated musicians of the last decade. She has decided to give up releasing music – despite (and because of) her fifth and latest album How The Dead Live. Part-funded through the Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand’s “Wild Creations” programme, Reyne spent time at Karamea on the West Coast. From her research there, Reyne conceived of a narrative based around an early settler to the area – Susannah Hawes who time and history have forgotten. The result is a highly idiosyncratic album, full of great songs and an ambition rarely seen in New Zealand music. It’s also highly listenable, beautiful melodies and Reyne’s lauded voice carrying through stories of New Zealand’s forgotten past.

Maidment Theatre
Sept 30-Oct 8 | Reviewed by Renee Liang

THE WHO’s Tommy (1969) was one of those iconic pieces of rock which I missed out on as a teenager. For a start, I was a teenager twenty years too late. Secondly, I was nowhere cool enough. But finally, in 2009, Stage Two productions has enabled me to see this rock musical up close and very, very live.