Cement Fondu is proud to present The Long Form, a podcast series that supports a living archive of the Cement Fondu program. The Long Form responds to a wider cultural and socio-political context and expands upon the research and knowledge generated by the program.

Listen to Josephine Skinner, Artistic and Curatorial Director of Cement Fondu as she journeys alongside artists that Cement Fondu have commissioned to make new work over the past few years. Each episode has three acts that correspond to a stage in the artmaking story, as well as the artist’s narrative. Skinner speaks with the artist at each stage of the artwork development as they conceive, create, and then reveal their work in our gallery. Along the way, we hear what brought them to this point, what are the challenges and learnings that they encounter and at the end, are they happy with the outcome?

In Episode 1, Skinner sits down with Christopher Ulutupu, an artist of Samoan/Niuean/German descent currently residing in Wellington. Ulutupu was commissioned by Cement Fondu to create a new video series for Attention Tourist, Cement Fondu’s third annual pairing exhibition of an early-career Asia Pacific artist with an esteemed international artist. For Attention Tourist, Ulutupu was paired with US artistic duo Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin, whose critically acclaimed multimedia installations have been exhibited at the Prada Foundation, Milan (2019), the Venice Biennale (2013) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2006).

The exhibition presented a newly commissioned video series by Ulutupu titled New Kid in Town (2021), which considers modern-day first encounters between tourists and Pacific Islanders. It also features Ulutupu’s The Romantic Picturesque: The Postcard Trilogy (2016-2018), a cinematic trio inspired by 1900’s tourist postcards that exoticized Pacific peoples and landscapes.

Listen to the episode on SoundCloud.