Ahilapalapa Rands' participation is supported by Artspace NZ

Ahilapalapa Rands (Hawaiian, Fijian, Pākehā) 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 member of art collective D.A.N.C.E. art club alongside Vaimaila Urale, Tuafale Tanoa’i aka Linda T, and Chris Fitzgerald. Since forming D.A.N.C.E. in 2008 the members continue to utilise the club as a testing space for identifying and pushing against restrictive and exclusionary definitions of what art can be. With a collaborative curatorial approach, D.A.N.C.E. events incorporate installations, music, performance, and food sharing, reimagining the social dynamic as a creative and transgressive platform. As an Arts worker Rands is driven to create and imagine alternative ways of exhibition making. Her multidisciplinary style focuses on disrupting dominant social narratives and worldviews by prioritising non-hegemonic subjects and subjectivities. This is particularly informed by issues relevant to Indigeneity and investigating ways that settler colonisation has and continues to inform narratives and power dynamics in the Pacific. In support of these concerns, Rands has delivered lectures and presented papers on the subject of alternative exhibition practices and artistic practice as well as on decolonizing movements and art institutions.

Recent Projects Include:
Cold Islanders, group exhibition at Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, Hamilton, 2017; lei-pā: a curatorial exhibition in collaboration with Lana Lopesi presented by ST PAUL St Gallery, 2017; Studio Residency, Strange Haven, Auckland, New Zealand, 2017, Participant, Indigenous Arts Journal Residency, The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff 2017; Internship as a Curatorial Assistant, Inaugural Honolulu Biennial, 2017.

Current Projects include:
The Community Cookbook, Sewerby Hall & Gardens, 10 week arts residency with Invisible Dust Surroundings series in East Riding of Yorkshire, England, 2017.