Ahilapalapa Rands

Lift Off, 3 channel animation & tinsel installation, 3.25min (looped)

You can watch an example of the all three video screens in the installation Lift Off here. Please note the final installation work disperses the screens in the gallery space and includes a tinsel curtain.

Since the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 there has been unending encroachment upon Kānaka Maoli. The ongoing struggles of the sacred Mauna Kea highlights a tension between Western and Hawaiian sciences and epistemologies. Hawaiian land protectors are often framed as anti-science, which is ironic given the astrological nature of Hawaiian culture. As a long-distance supporter of Mauna Kea, Rands uses art to highlight the lack of Indigenous autonomy over such sacred spaces. With a look to the future Lift Off pays homage to the ʻĀina warriors standing strong on the mountain.

Synopsis: "The sound of a bellowing Hawaiian Ipu drum beat calls across the floor of Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art. Turning a corner, you suddenly encounter a shimmering, hanging curtain of deep blue, aqua and silver tinsel. Looking adjacent reveals projected images of animated satellites. They jump, leap and gyrate to the beat of the master drumming teacher, the Kumu Hula. Eventually, the towers obliterate into pixels of digital confetti, until there are no more colonial intrusions left on the volcanic expanse of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea...Not only does Rands imagine Mauna Kea clear of telescopes, she imagines Hawaiian epistemologies - specifically that of hula - to be the powerful forces by which the telescopes are removed. Following in the footsteps of a suite of Indigenous futurist artists from Turtle Island to Hawaiʻi, Rands' animation uses traditional practices to imagine radical change."

- Lana Lopesi from the essay Solidarity Through Distance: Radical Imagination in the work of Ahilapalapa Rands, published on circuit.org.nz.
Credits:

Artist: Ahilapalapa Rands
Animation assistance: Fred K Tschepp
Ipu beat: Auliʻi Mitchell (remastered by Nikolai Mahina)

Commissioned by the Brisbane IMA institue as part of The Commute

Exhibitions:

The Commute, IMA Brisbane, 22 September – 22 December 2018.

Transits & Returns, Vancouver Art Gallery, September 28 2019 - February 23 2020.

Into The Open, New Zealand Art Festival Te Papa, February - March 2020

Oceanic Reading Room, 2018, Whitby UK

Oceanic Reading Room was commissioned as part of ‘Encounters’ a responsive exhibition staged by Invisible Dust in reaction to and as part of the Captain Cook Anniversary programming in Whitby, UK.

‘Aʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi’
All knowledge is not taught in one school – Hawaiian Proverb

This multi media project was staged in one of the reading rooms of the Whitby Library and aimed to introduce local audiences to ways in which knowledge and learning is gathered and shared by some of the indigenous peoples from the Pacific Islands. Through film, maps, books, quotations and interviews, Rands created a library within a library, a comfortable and welcoming space in which to explore art, science and research from a non-Western perspective. By looking at different ways of holding and acquiring knowledge we can start to find different ways of accessing our shared histories and make space for our sometimes shared, sometimes distinct worldviews. The books from the Reading Room are still available to enjoy in Whitby Library.

As part of the project rands created an hour length documentary Oceanic Voices featuring indigenous perspectives on Captain Cook which played on a loop alongside a video Q&A session with Kanaka Maoli Scientist Dr Kiana Frank.

The Cookbook Project, September 2017 - March 2018

The Cookbook project was a commissioned residency based project in Yorkshire, UK by arts organisation, Invisible Dust.