SIX HOT PICKS
SIX HOT PICKS AS CHOSEN BY HILARY BEATON
1 FAVOURITE LIBRARY, MUSEUM, OR GALLERY?
Women’s Gallery, Wellington The Women’s Gallery (19792005) organised themed exhibitions and group shows, poetry and story readings, performances, music evenings, parties, film and video showings, school holiday programmes, workshops, seminars, and regular special interest group meetings. It provided ongoing interest and opportunities for participation. My connection was as a writer/performer at art openings.
5 ART STYLE
Contemporary Art
I admire an artist of any period who broke new ground. Rita Angus is one such artist but there are many, many more.
2 FAVOURITE AUTHOR 3 GENRE
Keri Hulme
In 1984, I flew from Auckland to Los Angeles. At the airport, I picked up The Bone People, by an unknown author. The story consumed me during the discomfort of a 14-hour flight. A year later it won the 1985 Booker Prize. The book still haunts me.
4 HISTORICAL PERIOD
1700s or 1960s
It’s a toss between eighteenthcentury England or 1960s Pop Art. The former saw the growth of a literary and artistic society fostered by publishers, theatrical and musical impresarios, picture dealers, and auctioneers. Presentations and performances took place in the new coffee-houses, concert halls, libraries, theatres, and public spaces. I am drawn to the collective effort and the notion of a cultural ecology. The 1960s threw out all the rule books!
Theatre Scripts
The challenge of this genre is that the author writes in two domains: the world of the drama where the characters don’t know an audience is watching, and the world of the performance where the performers actively play with the audience. It is a highly skilled form of writing requiring the playwright to be a poet and engineer.
6 UNWINDING ACTIVITY Until
Pilates
I discovered Pilates, no other form of exercise has changed my body shape, strength, and flexibility with such long-lasting positive outcomes. I am now training to be an instructor.