AHILAPALAPA RANDS
Lift Off, 2018
3 channel animation
3 minutes, 25 seconds
Commissioned by visiting curators of The Commute, QAGOMA
Riverside Park
Well known for her collaborative work, Ahilapalapa Rands’ practice is dedicated to affirming Indigenous epistemologies, weaving contemporary technologies and realities with historical Indigenous knowledges. Rands’ 3-channel animation Lift Off explores Hawai‘ian relationships to sacred lands and cultural practices, and the possibilities of these practices to be powerful forces of refusal.
In one animation, the Ipu beat or drumbeat made by Rands’ Kumu Hula, Auliʻi Mitchell (and remastered by Nikolai Mahina) provides a “beating heart” for the work, and eventually uplifts and transports the massive telescopes off Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is considered one of the most sacred places on the Hawai’ian Islands. The volcano is an ancestor to Indigenous Hawai’ians, and a “piko (umbilicus, or site of convergence)” for the nation. 1
In another 2-channel animation, Rands depicts telescopes populating and eventually popping off the landscape as if driven by the beat of the drum. The expansion of a cluster of telescopes on Mauna Kea is understood as a desecration to the site and a violation of the Native Hawai’ian belief that “well-being and the well-being of the land are interdependent; neither can exist without the other.” 2
As curator Lana Lopesi, who worked with Rands on the commissioning of this work for the exhibition The Commute, writes, “Not only does Rands imagine Mauna Kea clear of telescopes, she imagines Hawai’ian 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.”
Artist Biography
Ahilapalapa Rands (Kanaka Maoli/Indigenous Hawai’ian, iTaukei/Indigenous Fijian, Pākehā/ Settler European) is an independent curator, writer, and artist. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Auckland University of Technology and a Diploma in Te Reo Māori from Te Wananga o Raukawa in Ōtaki, Aotearoa. Rands is a founding member of the New Zealand-based art collective D.A.N.C.E and London based In*ter*is*land Collective.
A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S
Ahilapalapa Rands
Lift Off, 2018
3 channel animation
3 minutes, 25 seconds
Commissioned by visiting curators of The Commute, QAGOMA
Photos: Frank Luca, 2023