In this podcast, artist and writer Hana Pera Aoake discusses three films: I saw the mountain erupt (2023); a eulogy to love (2019) and te tamaiti, te ao (2022). Hana Pera's practice juxtaposes handheld moving images with poetic text, and addresses the tensions between industry and sacred whenua, the presence of deep time and new parenthood.
List of topics
0:00: Introduction from Dani McIntosh.
01:00: Hana Pera discusses their video I saw the mountain erupt (2023); working with an essay by their partner Morgan Godfery; the town of Kawerau as formerly one of Aotearoa's wealthiest towns and now one of the poorest, and also the town as the site of Māori pūrākau.
05:54: Dani asks, why entwine the writing with the moving image?
08:09: Dani introduces the video work a eulogy to love (2019); Dani asks why juxtapose shots of Italian actress Monica Vitti with scenes of rural landscape? Hana Pera explains how the video was shot in many sites including Aotearoa, Portugal and other European locations. They discuss Vitti as an image of an "hysterical woman," and the ongoing theme in their practice of "the tension of industry versus caring for the whenua (landscape).”
13.08: Dani asks about the line "I will not be afraid despite the fear tumbling through my body."
15:50: Hana Pera on how parenthood has affected their work. They discuss deep time, the relationship between the human and non-human and the whakataukī "Ka Mua, Ka Muri" ("walking backwards into the future").
20:00: Hana Pera on David Lynch’s movie Eraserhead (1977).
23:00: Hana Pera discusses their work te tamaiti, te ao (2022), which references writing by the late New Zealand author Keri Hulme (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe). Hana Pera speaks on their work with Kei te pai press (with Morgan Godfery), through which they published some of Hulme's writing for the group exhibition Matarau (2022), curated by Shannon Te Ao.
24:41: Hana Pera on working with musician Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu).
28:18: End.
