Creative Matters with Sefton Rani

Mandy Jakich
Mar 23, 2023
1 min read

Sefton Rani works out of Piha, a coastal settlement west of Auckland. He describes himself as a self taught maker who uses paint as his material of choice to create modern Pacific art.

Paint skins are collaged or simply allowed to float as a sculptural object. He encourages the apparent ageing of his work surfaces to show the lineage and journey of both the materials and of the migrant Pacific people whose artistic traditions strongly influence his work.

Sefton is of Cook Island heritage. His work enables him to explore his “Pacificness” and navigate his Pasifika identity within the broader context of New Zealand.

In this episode we talk about how the February 2023 cyclone has affected Sefton's studio and how this event may influence his next body of work; how he sees his work as “industrial tapa” which is influenced by the marks, patterns, motifs and forms of traditional tapa, carving, tattoo, weaving and tivaevae; the value he places on community within his art practice; his goals to be represented in galleries around the world and the lenses that have impacted his work.