Arts & Minds

In response to last week's discussion in Arts & Minds of arts coverage on television, particularly TV One, a reader commented she was distressed by the scheduling of the World Arts series, which debuts at 10.30pm this Saturday with a profile of Graham Greene. She is desperate to see it, but she is an "older" person and 10.30pm is simply too late. She does not have a video recorder.

Writes another, "How is it that TVNZ programme bosses assume that intelligent, cultivated people are only receptive to 'serious' programmes after they have sat through a night of mindless trash ... yet again we have to wait up all night for something really stimulating. Are they afraid they will lose their precious adolescent minds if they screen it earlier? Perhaps the same minds might also like to be enlightened."

Another reader said he would love to see some Shakespeare on the box, as well as televised plays and documentaries on drama production. Other requests came in for opera, sculpture, music and its interpretation, concerts, architecture ... you get the picture - or at least you wish you could.

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However, Mercury Lane's Saturday night profile of artist Jan Nigro looks like a bright spot. Nigro talks to Kim Webby about her 60-year career and her love of painting the nude body, a move which shocked prudish New Zealanders not too many years ago. It's hard to believe now, but one of her paintings, which actually showed a person with pubic hair, was kept hidden away so tender viewers would not be corrupted. On April 26, Merc Lane profiles British actor Lennie James, who has forged a strong, ongoing bond with a group of South Auckland actors and wrote the play The Sons of Charlie Paora for them. Under the directorship of Sam Scott, Charlie Paora looks set for a place as a classic New Zealand drama and is booked for a season at London's Royal Court Theatre as well as a script treatment for a movie.

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Swiss artist Arlette Ochsner has brought a curious little project to Auckland, which can be seen at the Viaduct Basin's Market Place. It's a ball, made of wire, 1.3m in diameter, which will be on display in Auckland until April 28, before moving to Napier. On May 7 it will be transported to "the exact opposing point of its counterpart" in Switzerland, 500km southeast of the Chathams where it will be dumped into the ocean to "form the southern end of the axel". Dumped into the ocean? Isn't there enough rubbish in the sea already? For more information see Downunder - Linda Herrick, arts editor

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Recommended: Take a little trip around Khartoum Place where at the Oedipus Rex Gallery until May 3 you can see Angus deLange's colourful evocations of the south of France and Virginia Leonard's bold, textured abstract paintings. Around the corner, at FHE's G2 Gallery until April 30, catch the paintings of Sarah Guppy (pictured) done on glass and ceramic as well as canvas, all in a circular format with subtle rhythm and colour. - T.J. McNamara

Junkyard: Solo exhibition by graffiti artist Elliott "Askew" O'Donnell on the theme of "urban aesthetic renewal". Askew is the director of professional aerosol art business Disruptiv Ltd, which creates large-scale graffiti works around Auckland, runs workshops and manages the annual Disrupt the System event at the Aotearoa Hip Hop Summit. Urban Arthaus, Saatchi & Saatchi Building, 125 The Strand, Parnell, until May 2.

Stations of the Cross: Contemporary interactive installations reflecting on the story of Easter using a variety of media; an annual event staged by the Cityside Baptist Church at 8 Mt Eden Rd, Newton, with a second digital site at the former Bungalow Bill's Music Store site at 259 Symonds St; open today 6pm-midnight, Good Friday midday-midnight and Easter Saturday midday-6pm. (see Cityside's website)

Pictures at an exhibition: Works by Coromandel artist Richard Chrisp (pictured), as well as a hangi, music and dancing to raise funds for the Corowork Co-op, which helps to source work for young unemployed people. Chrisp's exhibition runs until April 28 at Assay House in Coromandel; the $10 a head hangi is at Fave Tahiti, Pagitt St, on Sunday at 5pm. - Linda Herrick