Duty Free Paradise

Duty-Free Paradise, a multimedia exhibition and series of live broadcasted performances that plays on the tensions of lived and imagined Hawai’i. Through the lens of eco-tourism, around which the islands’ economy heavily circulates, this work explores the contradictions between perceptions and realities of island life as a constructed paradise through American pop culture, down to the flora and fauna, underwritten by militarism and biopolitics. The exhibition Duty-Free Paradise opened on January 21, 2021, coincidentally 15 days after the attempted coup on the U.S. Capitol Building, and four days after the anniversary of the coup of 1893 that overthrew Hawaiian sovereignty. It was because of Queen Lili'uokalani cooperation that it was considered a bloodless war. See work from the BLOODLESS (2018) series here.

In September, 79 visitors arrived from Japan compared to 143,928 visitors a year ago in 2019. Year-to-date through September, Japanese arrivals declined 74.9 percent to 294,647 visitors. - Hawaii Tourism Authority: Hawaii Visitor Statistics Released for September 2020

This work is a wall print with a design based on a 2018 entrance pass to the Dole Plantation Pineapple Garden Maze accompanied by a video of a first-person exploration of the maze itself. The Dole Plantation’s website boasts that its 2.5-mile botanical maze is composed of 14,000 Hawaiian plants and was the world’s largest maze as of 2008. The plantation is located near Whitmore Village in Wahiawa, where the artist’s family lives. The land in this district has been controlled by the U.S. military since 1888; and in 1941[i], the NCTAMS PAC was moved there. ‘The station at Wahiawa is located on approximately 700 acres of land in central Oahu on the eastern side of the highest part of the Schofield Plateau.’[ii] The wall print has been edited to leave only the phrase “Secret Stations,” echoing the histories of the land the Garden Maze’s grounds are located on. The number 720740 is the number of the ticket I received the day I toured the garden maze, and bango is the Japanese word for number. They were usually worn on a chain around plantation laborers necks, and the shape was typically determined by the worker's race. Every Hawaiian plantation used the bango system, which was borrowed from the slave tag system used in the South before the American Civil War. Laborers were required to wear their bango during working hours, and plantation accounts were kept by bango number rather than the employee’s name.

[i] “Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific,” Wikipedia, accessed August 26, 2021.
[ii] “The History of Wahiawa” Cryptology Information Warfare, accessed, August 27, 2021

The wall print is based off the Dole Plantation Pineapple Garden Maze entrance passes, leaving only the phrase ‘Secret Stations’ to echo the histories of the grounds it is located on.

This video is a first-person exploration of the Dole Plantation Pineapple Garden Maze. The Dole Plantation website boasts that this 2.5 mile botanical maze was declared the world’s largest in 2008, and claims the hedge is composed of 14,000 Hawaiian plants but none are specified. It is located near Whitmore Village in Wahiawa, the land in this district has been controlled by the U.S. military since 1888, first as a coaling station that serviced vessels of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and is currently being used for naval communications facilities and military and Hawaii residential housing.

This video still is from the interactive background used in HEX 424832, a virtual performance hosted by Blue House Arts at Front Street Gallery in Dayton, Ohio, that took place on Friday, February 5, 2021. A “hex” can be a spell, a curse, or a prefix for color numbers in the hexadecimal color-coding system, a tool for identifying exact colors across other systems including RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK, and PANTONE. The color identified as hex #424832 is the same color as PANTONE 19-0419 TPX - Rifle Green. The ‘Rifle’ refers to the Honolulu Rifles, an armed militia that participated in the overthrow of 1893.  The performance points to the deeply layered yet invisible way militarism is embedded in economic and political planning in Hawai`i and the influences it has on everyday life. A total of 11 military bases are in O`ahu, Maui, Kaua`i, and the Big Island, many of which were active in WWII.

Remote performance of Duty-Free Paradise hosted by Blue House Arts at Front Street Gallery that was on Friday, January 05, 2021 @ 7-8 PM. Documentation here.

In this piece, a fresh pineapple that was custom-crated by Asuncion six years ago represents the last pineapple plantation in 2007 in Hawaiʻi and the canneries that eventually closed, the last one on Maui in 2017 before moving overseas to the Philippines and Puerto Rico. It stands as a symbol of the last pineapple crop marking the end of 146 years of the production of this fruit as a monocrop in Hawai’i.

This work critiques the commodification of Hawai`i as an escape to paradise for Americans living overseas on the U.S. “mainland” and tourist activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The videos addresses the ways eco-tourism advertising continues neoliberal economic and political gain through the exploitation of Hawai`i’s resources, land, and peoples. The performative action of boxing reflects the cultural importance of boxing in Hawai`i since the 1920s, as well as Asuncion’s training at the at Waipahu Boxing Club from 1994-97. It also reflects the struggle for a sense of identity as a local and independence of Hawai’i as a sovereign nation. 

“Aloha `Oe” playing in the video as background music
“Aloha-Oe, Until We Meet Again” by Goombay Dance Band
“Hi`ilawe – Aloha `Oe” by Gabby Pahinui (1972)
“Aloha `Oe” by Elvis Presley
“Aloha `Oe” (Acapella) by Tavita Teʻo
“Aloha `Oe” – The Kawaiahao Church Choir (1970)

Video reference:
Hawaii, USA 🇺🇸 - by drone [4K] 🏄‍ 🏝

In certain sections of the video, the figure of Asuncion in the foreground is blurry while the background is in focus. With this choice, Asuncion deliberately shifts the viewer’s gaze, challenging the way the viewer’s mind is trained to expect what is far away to appear blurry and what is closer to be in focus. From 1929–33, the Hawaii Pineapple Company (now Dole Food Company) attempted to use the brown female body as source of allure when marketing their pineapples, racially eroticized their bodies. By flipping this optical trope, adopted by the cinematic tradition, Fair Use Hawaii creates a sense of control by the artist, subverting the gaze of the viewer away from the performers body and onto the idealized background.

Talunan sabong (defeated cock)
preserved rooster feet, 19th century square cut nails, beeswax string, leather, wood
2007

Talunan is a popular Filipino chicken soup, but it also means loser or defeated. Sabong is another Tagalog word that translates to ‘cockfight.’ Despite the name talunan soup is sometimes made from the winning cock of the brood when it is too old to fight. This work reflects the nuances of war, violence, and sport and how all exist in cultures like Hawaii and the Philippines where Imperialism and U.S. militarization force has played a role in shaping their past and current histories.

This work was influenced by a letter Queen “Lydia” Lili`uokalani wrote while imprisoned at Iolani Palace following the overthrow of the Hawai`ian monarchy by a Euro-American oligarchy that desired greater control of the Hawaiian government on January 17, 1893: “Alas! My love for my homeland and my beloved people. The United States annexed the Republic of Hawai`i in 1898 during the presidency of William McKinley. Pineapples are printed on the pink slippers or ‘slippas’ as called in Hawaiian pidgin, to reference the Queen Lili’uokalani and the stand she took against her overthrow through letters of protest. The text is written in dirt or ʻĀina, the Hawaiian word meaning ‘land.’

ʻĀina text:
Alas! My love for my homeland and my beloved people. The bones of my bones the blood of my blood. Aloha! Aloha! Aloha!

Exhibition essay on this project can be viewed in the Pacific Arts Association issue Pacific Arts, vol. 20, no. 1 published, 2021.

Project made possible by the 2020 Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation & Blue House Arts in collaboration with Front Street Art supported by Culture Works.