Duty-Free Paradise performance headpiece (2021) by Timothy Manalo
Sirena mask design & creation (2021) JR Uretsky
Worn in live-performance Isle of the Blessed (2021) at Starlight Square in Cambridge, MA
MAZE (2021) necklace by Hawai’i based artist Juvana Soliven
The Maze necklace, double sided enamel on copper, was made in reference to research on the geneticist Stanley Porteus Maze Tests (PMT) a psychosocial racial hierarchy of intelligence testing using a maze device. This testing was administer to labor workers on the Dole Pineapple Plantations where they were used to segregate races by intelligence and justify unequal pay. His son Hebden married James Dole's daughter Elizabeth (Betty) Dole who edited Porteus's autobiography. The testing starts from ages 3 and up, the piece references contemporary children's toys. This work is part of Duty-Free Paradise project.
3 Breaths 3 Hearts <3
CONTACT ZONE | Waikīkī
Lani Asuncion + Kasey Lou Lindley
two channel sound, single-channel video, 4:03 trt
2018
Using our bodies as a form of communication, Lani is passing information along to Kasey. These movements pace with their heartbeats and breath of both artists and the child Kasey at the time of the performance was incubating, on the left audio channel Lani’s heartbeat keeps time with the right channel which is two heartbeats both Kasey and her child in utero. Lani grew up in Hawai‘i and now lives in Boston; Kasey grew up in Utah and lived in Hawai‘i. Having met in graduate school, their connection with Hawai‘i has made their bond stronger. Addressing the diasporic condition of locals to their home of Hawai‘i and how tourism, commercial development, and foreign economic powers have caused gentrification that changes the cultural landscape of O‘ahu and neighbor islands, the artists attempt to create a bridge; a physical language that attempts to, if only for a moment, interrupt the frequency of the atmosphere of an otherwise culturally exploited area: Waikīkī. The child Kasey is carrying creates a bond between the two artists that is a symbol of hope for the future, and a reminder that next generations will inherit how the land is left today.
CONTACT ZONE Exhibition Guide (2018) exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art School presented by Pu'uhonua Society.