Rangi Kipa

Te Ati Awa, Ngati Tama ki Te Tauihu, Ngati Toa

Rangi is a fully committed, inter-disciplinary artist, keen to make his work accessible for people, constantly on the move realising projects and commissions, fearlessly innovative with materials and forms, and often controversial in his approach and opinions.

“I cover a broad spectrum” he says. “I spend a lot of time replicating really old forms, because we forget. Either we haven’t been shown them or we don’t bother to step out of the Maori paradigm of, say, the last 400 years. Also, I think that there are other ways to explore contemporary Maori expressions of Maoriness for Maori today, like moving the hei tiki form on – starting off maybe with a form that’s in a museum somewhere and then continuing to work with that form and change something every time you do it.”

He’s probably most identified with the highly-coloured Corian and resin hei tiki that were included in Ngahiraka Mason’s Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly show at the Auckland Art Gallery in ….  “That medium does something I think nothing else does at the moment. It challenges me more than bone and other materials have done in the past.”

His innovation extends to all his other making: from puoru Maori (traditional musical instruments), to design, whakairo, contemporary sculpture and his well-known work with ta moko. He sees moko as a powerful tool to re-engage Maori with their own culture and be a source of identity and pride. He has few problems with ta moko and Pakeha too: he says “From my perspective, I love the idea of branding Pakeha – colonising them this time”, seeing it as a way of changing the face of New Zealand literally and symbolically.

Born in Christchurch 1n 1966, Kipa initially gained a diploma from Porirua’s Maraeroa Carving School, did a Social Science degree at Waikato before doing Master of Maori Visual Art at Massey in Palmerston North. He has lectured at Massey in Wellington and at the Wananga in Whakatane, has won awards for his work and is involved in maintaining quality in Maori art and guaranteeing authenticity. In more recent years he has been assisting indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific to revive and enlarge their traditions as a means to economic and cultural survival.

Kipa has described his art as being politically motivated, as he sees his work as part of the wider picture for Maori. “I never look at my art from an isolated point of view – it’s always contextualised within the whole body of the movement and expression of Maori art.”