Page 35 - AWF_2018_Programme_v1

100 GENERAL EVENT
PONTI: SHARLENE TEO
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 12.00-1.00PM HEARTLAND FESTIVAL ROOM, AOTEA SQUARE
Singaporean writer Sharlene Teo’s debut novel Ponti won the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writer’s Award and was praised by Ian McEwan for its “brilliant descriptive power”, and for characters which “glow with life and humour and minutely observed desperation”.
Teo sets her twisting and haunting story of an intense and unusual friendship between two women against the humming, shifting atmosphere of contemporary Singapore. She speaks with Rosabel Tan about her breakthrough debut. Supported by National Arts Council
the rise of China, the explosion of
its contemporary art and cultural scene, and its citizens’ struggle for freedom of expression. Her book The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance and The Making of Modern China – called an essential and magni cent memoir- cum-history by Thomas Keneally of Schindler’s Ark fame – charts China’s ascent from economic ruin to global giant through its art. In this lecture, O’Dea references the work of six contemporary artists – including Ai Weiwei – in order to understand the behemoth that is China. Supported by NZ Contemporary Art Trust.
102
FREE EVENT
FOUR FOR FIFTY READINGS SESSION
STRANGERS IN A NEW LAND
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 12.00-12.50PM LIMELIGHT ROOM, AOTEA CENTRE
Cultural historian and Awards longlister Leonard Bell, short story writer Anton Blank, and rising ction stars Catherine Cooper and Jenny Zhang provide ten minute readings that re ect on what it is to be a stranger in a new land. Introduced by Anne Kennedy.
103 GENERAL EVENT – GALLERY
WRITERS ON FILM: AMOS OZ
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 1.15-2.30PM AUCKLAND ART GALLERY AUDITORIUM
Focussed on one of Israel’s most highly regarded writers, The Nature of Dreams covers two years of Amos Oz’s life as he meets readers and considers Jewish and Israel history through the lens of his acclaimed memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness. Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster and Nadine Gordimer,
as well as Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh, also feature. Directed by Masha Zur. (Runtime 75 mins.) Supported by Auckland Art Gallery
T o i o T a- m a k i .
104 GENERAL EVENT
THE WATER WILL COME: JEFF GOODELL
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 1.30-2.30PM ASB THEATRE, AOTEA CENTRE
By century’s end our landscape will be transformed, and hundreds of millions of people will retreat inland as coasts are inundated. In The Water
of Singapore.
101 FREE EVENT
THE EYES OF THE ARTIST: MADELEINE O’DEA
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 12.00-1.00PM UPPER NZI ROOM, AOTEA CENTRE
For the last 30 years Australian foreign correspondent and arts editor Madeleine O'Dea has witnessed
35