Meet Ming Ranginui

Ming Ranginui is an artist whose recent practice explores fantasy and illusions in our turbulent times, creating satin sculptures manifest in “impractical but impactful ways.” Here, we chat to Ming about the works in her current exhibition Late to the Ball at Season Aotearoa.

Artwork photography: Courtesy of Season Aotearoa

Ming Ranginui in her Melissa Y/Project mules. Installation view, Late to the Ball, March 2023, Season Aotearoa.

Three words to describe your practice:

Gaudy, janky, slay.

Walk us through the exhibition, Late to the Ball. How did the ideas come together?

I felt like I should make some work about my job because I’m all about transmuting my experiences into content. I work in the haberdashery department in an emporium. Before I worked there it was, like, my favourite shop. I'd go there to get materials or just inspiration; and when I saw they were hiring and I was looking for a job it felt very cosmic. But the experience of a customer to an employee is quite different. 

All the things I used to be inspired by just became part of my everyday, but my encounters with customers became my new source of inspiration—in my first week of working there i noticed pakeha women coming in making what they called “maori cloaks” out of hessian fabric, chicken feather trim and this Aztec-looking ribbon. I thought it was pretty weird but it became so frequent I couldn’t really ignore it, and over time, I started feeling like I was complicit in the appropriation of my own culture. I was also studying raranga/whatu at raukawa at the time so I felt even more protective over our traditional art forms—especially because I was learning first hand what goes into making traditional kakahu—and seeing it become this weird craft project for pakeha just felt off; but because of my job I'm not in a position to be able say or do anything about it. So that's what the broom was inspired by, and I made it using what I had learnt from my course.

I spend a lot of time at work looking at the clock, so I made one without hands because, in retail, time feels endless and I wanted to make a castle and that’s what the dole house ended up being. The show is my Cinderella story, like that movie with Hilary Duff.

Silk or satin:

Satin!

Glass slipper or perspex heel:

Ooo, it has to be my Melissa Y/Project mules. I reckon this show was just an excuse to wear them.

Pumpkin or kūmara:

Kūmara!

House or car:

I would choose a house over any car!

Most outrageous anecdote from working in retail:

Hmm that's hard—I encounter a lot of outrageous people, but they are just entitled and it doesn’t really make for an interesting story. I can give you my top two customers of today: one was a priest looking for linen to wipe the chalice during communion; and the other guy was a racist looking for a costume to dress up as an “Indian.” He made sure to let me know he didn’t mean cowboys and Indians, he meant “curry Indians.” The contrast of the job is why I probably stay, because the wholesome encounters usually outweigh the not wholesome ones.

Favourite song to listen to whilst making work:  ‘Push’ by Madonna—it’s kinda embarrassing but kinda spiritual and helps get rid of my self doubt when I’m making.

Current reading list:

Umm, sitting on my bedside table is the dressmaker from ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’, Thelma Madine’s, memoir that I started months ago—but i just can't read if i have deadlines. It feels too self indulgent so i stick to TV.

Ming Ranginui, Dole house (detail), 2023, Dole house, 2023, satin, wadding, satin cord, diamantes, pearls, beads, 90 x 95 x 60 cm.

Ming Ranginui in her Melissa Y/Project mules. Installation view, Late to the Ball, March 2023, Season Aotearoa.

Ming Ranginui, Till the clock strikes five (detail), 2023, satin, wadding, beads, vinyl cord, cord lock, clock mechanism, 68 cm (diameter).

Ming Ranginui, Swept under the rug (detail), 2023, muka, cotton pearl thread, broomstick, 160 cm (length).

Ming Ranginui, Swept under the rug, 2023, muka, cotton pearl thread, broomstick, 160 cm (length).

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