Скачать или смотреть Coco Solid, 2019 Arts Foundation Laureate receiving the award for mixed media

Coco Solid aka Jessica Lee Hansell is a musician, writer and artist. Her work includes documentary Heaven’s Gate, TV series Ahikāroa, animated TV series Aroha Bridge, and her album Cokes. She works across many disciplines saying: “I had to work out where I find myself thriving and inspiring others the most … the different realms where that sense of self was strongest and most potent. They happen to be in the creative medium and I try and work just on those.” She speaks about her determination to speak truth to power and says her kaupapa is to radicalise every context that she works in. “Whether that's deluded or optimistic or ambitious, I don't think about that … I come in with an intention and I see how far I can get.” Musically she’s adopted a DIY underground ethos outside industry structures, and cites the autonomy this has given her as high-risk high-reward. Recently she received her Masters in Creative Writing, and was named the 2018 recipient of the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency. She sees her success as collective, a victory that belongs to everyone that has championed her on her journey. In a 2018 interview with the Guardian she said: “In my world you’re only as good as those you helped to amplify … Generally Polynesian artists understand our obligations and responsibilities to those coming after us ... Our cultures discourage individualistic legacies that western culture rewards: if you tried that you’d get shit-talked pretty fast.”