CIRCUIT and Creative New Zealand welcome Mana Moana research resident Israel Randell.
Israel Randell is a multi-disciplinary artist of Cook Island (Rarotonga) and Māori (Tainui, Ngāti Kahungunu) descent, who explores the notions of innovation as tradition through installations, performances and spatial activations.
While at CIRCUIT Israel will be investigating experimental art practices of Mana Moana artists in Aotearoa to produce a collection of interviews and online content. She is interested in exploring the concept of "experimental" beyond its visual composition, to include social boundaries and conventions. In this way experimentation turns into innovation, a space where disciplines collide. Recognising that mana moana artists are innate storytellers, she aims to highlight practices that use moving image, sound and performance as conduits for the reformation, recontextualisation and retelling of indigenous stories; towards a place where historical and contemporary ideas flow together, where conceptual, experimental and material realms converge. Grounded in the fertile realms of te kore, a space of potential, Israel intends to create more visibility for mana moana artists.
Israel recently won the Miles Art Award and is currently completing her postgraduate studies in Māori visual arts at Massey University, Toioho ki Apiti.