Rangi Kipa

Working primarily as a sculptor, carver and tā moko artist, Rangi Kipa’s practice explores the articulation of cultural and tribal identity through the whakapapa of adornment and ethnographic taonga.

Raised in Waitara in Taranaki, Kipa first trained as a carver at Maraeroa Carving School in Porirua in 1986, later completing a Master of Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in 1999. He has since forged a practice that investigates how customary Māori motifs, materials and techniques can be re-envisaged in a kōrero (conversation) between past and present. He has used traditional materials like whalebone and pāua to directly reference customary Māori weaponry, whereas his hei tiki (human figures), a central focus of his work, incorporate synthetic, composite materials with traditional ones to more explicitly interweave the customary and contemporary.