Maia Tarapipipi

Kāinga, meaning home in Te Reo Māori, began as a Polaroid series I had taken to document my childhood home before it was demolished. As a final good-bye, and a thank you to my family, I created Kāinga to express both the love and loss.

The large scale screen prints are segmented into print colour channels (cyan, magenta and black) as a way to tie back in its photographic origin. The intent is to create a sense of a figure without the image being entirely figurative, a sense of place without being entirely grounded.

My final video work Kāinga brings the collection back home to where the original images where taken.

In uncertain times, my aim was to create a space for myself which I could feel at home at. Kāinga is a way for me, as a textile artist, to reconnect with a sense of nostalgia and a feeling of precious longing which can only be expressed in the love at surrounds a treasured childhood home.