Hei Tiki And Issues Of Representation Within Contemporary Maori Arts

This research project explores the field of contemporary Mâori arts to ascertain issues of representation of Mâori imagery and design. The notion of representation is located in the indigenous iconographic form, the hei tiki. A material interface to a distant past, hei tiki currently rides the eclectic wave of mainstream fashion. Its scope of success can be measured as being an elite object keenly demanded by international collectors of art or as an enduring symbol of pre-European Mâori cultural identity, or as a patriotic symbol of nationhood. The participant is Rangi Kipa. He is used in this research project because of a series of work he created titled, 'This is a tiki'. The legacy of hei tiki has recently propelled a visual conversation between artists and curators, that it can be perceived, that tiki was lost in the visual chatter of the art institution. Strikingly however, amongst the blinding noise, this exceptional body of work is being pursued, relentlessly so from collectors internationally. This series of work can be described as transcultural, modernised reproductions of a traditionally Mâori culturally symbolic icon. It can be interpreted as offensive, as Pâkehâ, as kûpapa, as intellectual, and as distinctly Mâori. Powerful interpretations instigated by masterful manipulations of colourful plastic composite materials. It is exactly those subjective charges that relocates the plastic hei tiki from the obscure realm of art to an equally obscure realm of academic discourse. It is these dynamics that has captured the curiosity of the author.