Maori Artist Showcase: Multimedia Artist, Tipare

Ko Ngāti Maniapoto te Iwi
Ko Ngāti Waiora te hapū
Ko Mōkau te Awa
Ko Kahuwera te Maunga
Ko Napinapi me Mōkau Kohunui ngā marae
Ko Aria te rohe
Ko Tipare tōku ingoa

I am a multi-media artist. Everything about me is multi. I was raised in multiple places, from the Hawksberry River to Aria, Sydney, Los Angeles, and New York. I grew up around multifarious ethnicities and listened to languages in many tongues. 

Multiplicity informs my world, it’s who I am. My father was a musician, my mother a muse and model. I have never known anything but the sound of arts. I slept in his guitar case at shows and watched my mother be photographed on days off. She was beautiful and I was obsessed with her wardrobe. My father was deep and seeped me in Nina Simone. I love the raw, the shiny, the shallow, and the cavernous. I am simultaneously political and spiritual. I am multi-faceted and multi-interested, which is why the medium of expression, for me, can’t be singular.

Because sometimes you have to sing it, sometimes you have to say it, sometimes show it, and at other times just shine a light on it.

Tipare is a music artist, writer, director, activist, photographer, and producer. She is also a documentary maker and has spent the last decade telling Māori stories through contemporary settings. Tipare has just completed her multimedia exhibition 'UWHA: I became my own muse' run at Studio One in Auckland and recently co-created the visual poem 'The Eyes of God' for the NASA Cinespace short film competition. 

She is currently working on her music project Saline.

More information and examples of her work can be found at www.tipare.co.nz