Honolulu Biennial 2019 Announces Exhibition Sites and New Commissions

Bernice Akamine, Kalo, 2015-present. 87 individual kalo plants each one 15-24″ high x 8″-36″ wide. Total dimension of 87 kalo plants in a rectangular configuration, 27’x 19′ or larger dependent upon space available. Courtesy of the artist.

Honolulu Biennial 2019
To Make Wrong / Right / Now
March 8 – May 5, 2019
https://www.honolulubiennial.org

Honolulu Biennial Foundation announces the full list of venues and exhibition details for the second edition of the Honolulu Biennial, To Make Wrong / Right / Now. Held from March 8-May 5, 2019 with an invitation–only preview day on March 7, the Honolulu Biennial 2019 (HB19) will take place at more than 10 locations on Oʻahu and brings together 19 artists and artist groups from Hawaiʻi and 29 artists and artist groups of the Pacific, Asia and the Americas. The Biennial’s central location – The Hub – will return to Ward Village with an 18,000 square-foot venue located in the heart of Honolulu’s award-winning 60-acre master planned community being developed by The Howard Hughes Corporation, the Founding and Co-Title Sponsor of the HB19.

The Honolulu Biennial aims to contribute to local and global dialogs by connecting indigenous perspectives, knowledge, and creative expressions that are of these places. This year, the Biennial will activate more than 10 sites around Honolulu comprised of institutional anchor sites, including the Bishop Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the John Young Museum of Art at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa; the “downtown loop,” a cluster of diverse and historic sites in downtown Honolulu; and coastal venues to include the McCoy Pavilion and The Hub, the Biennial’s central location where visitors will find a concentration of artwork and programming. All is tied together with multi-site installations from the artists Bernice Akamine (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi) and Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico).

To Make Wrong/Right/ Now embraces the polyvocality of each venue as a repository of enduring histories and the continuum of indigenous knowledge. The venues have been carefully selected for their ties to the curatorial approach and the works this approach has inspired. Collectively, the sites reflect a deep reverence for land, ocean, wahi pana (storied places) and the genealogical ties within Hawai’i and the wider Pacific region. The selection of sites extend the biennial beyond an engagement with contemporary art towards a deeper connection with the histories and stories that are of, and unique to, this place.

Curator Nina Tonga states, “To Make/ Wrong/ Right Now promotes a genealogical sense of place that embraces the myriad ways they are known, imagined, remembered, contested and lived. The Biennial is comprised of a constellation of venues, each selected for its historical significance and its potential to inform our present and inevitably our futures.”

“The Biennial is a moment for reflection, on both collective and individual histories, for all of the participating artists. Their effort and resulting work is an indispensable contribution to the continuum of intergenerational knowledge and the vitality of contemporary art in the region,” states Katherine Ann Leilani Tuider, Executive Director and Co-founder of the Honolulu Biennial.

MULTI-SITE COMMISSIONS

The Honolulu Biennial 2019 will present the work of two artists, Abraham Cruzvillegas and Bernice Akamine, as multi-site commissions across several HB19 sites. These commissions were selected to activate specific sites and provide a platform for contemporary issues relating to houselessness and the politics of place.

Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico) will present the new commission, Self Deconstructed & Rehashed Polygonal Totemic Déjà Vu (for El Chamaco) I-VI (2019) at multiple HB19 venues chosen to create an interlocking network of sculptures, producing a series of pathways and stoppages across the city of Honolulu. The sculptures are a response to the complicated relationship in the Pacific between outdoor and indoor life. Influenced by the building tactics implemented by people living in Cruzvillegas’ childhood neighborhood of Colonia Ajusco in Mexico City, the works will be composed of wood, corrugated cellulose and asphalt, aluminum, paint, and beer bottle caps to represent cast-offs from a middle and upper-class society. Sites for this work include Bishop Museum, Foster Botanical Garden, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, the McCoy Pavilion and The Hub.

Bernice Akamine (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi) will present five installations of Ku’u One Hanau – Hawaiian flag tents addressing houseless issues – at five of the HB19 sites. The works will be placed in dialogue with Cruzvillegas’s work at select HB19 sites, including Bishop Museum, Foster Botanical Garden, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and the McCoy Pavilion.

COASTAL VENUES

Situated on the coast of Oʻahu’s south shore, The Hub at Ward Village and the McCoy Pavilion HB19 sites bring visitors in close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, a unifying symbol of connection for the Biennial’s participating artists. The Hub at Ward Village is HB19’s heartbeat and epicenter of HB19 activities. Named “Best Planned Community in the United States” by Architectural Digest for itsintegration of world-class design, local culture and open public space, Ward Village is introducing a new island urbanism to Hawaiʻi. Located within walking distance of The Hub is the McCoy Pavilion, a historic site and community center complete with a hidden banyan courtyard amidst Ala Moana Regional Beach Park, affectionately known as the  ‘People’s Park.’

THE HUB AT WARD VILLAGE, 1200 Ala Moana Blvd, Honolulu, HI 96814
Public Hours: Open daily, except Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Admission: Free with HB19 All-Access Pass; $7 for University Students and Seniors; $10 for Kama’aina and Military; $12 General Admissions; Free for under 18 years of age.

A site not to be missed is The Hub at Ward Village, HB19’s main location with the largest concentration of artworks in the Biennial – featuring over twenty artists and installations, including eight new commissions with new site-specific installations by Lee Kitt (Hong Kong | Hong Kong, Taiwan), Bradley Capello(United States | Hawaiʻi) and Cory Taum (Kanaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi). A featured highlight of The Hub is a new intricately woven-thread installation by artist Chiharu Shiota (Japan | Germany).
 
The presentation of digital media is a focus at The Hub, featuring a range of works that provide insight into diverse realities of the region such as three-channel video installation, Habitat (2017), by Taloi Havini (Hakö People | Autonomous Region of Bougainville | Australia) that explores the legacies of mineral extraction in the Pacific. This is echoed by the three-channel work Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat (2010) by DAKOgamay (Philippines, Netherlands), an ongoing project that documents the lives of seafarers and fishermen from Bantayan Island as they navigate ongoing issues of environmental dilapidation and climate change. YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (South Korea, United States) will present their work Pacific Limin (2013), originally created in San Francisco as a commentary on the hyper-capitalism of Pan-Pacific cities. The work weaves together three narratives presented as giant text synched to an up-tempo jazz soundtrack composed by the artists.

The Hub also includes the work of Florence Jaukae Kamel (Papua New Guinea), a textile artist and women’s rights advocate from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Kamel has extended the twist and loop knotting technique of bilum (hand woven bags) to create garments and large-scale installations. For the Honolulu Biennial 2019, she will exhibit 10 new bilum garments in The Hub, along with a second installation of bilum at YWCA Laniakea.

Another highlight of the The Hub is the first artistic collaboration of London-based artists Pio Abad and Frances Wadsworth Jones (Philippines, United Kingdom), part of Abad’s ongoing project The Collection of Jane Ryan and William Saunders, which examines the role of artifacts that have shaped the cultural legacies of Philippine dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. For the Honolulu Biennial, the project comprises 3-D printed replicas of the famous Marcos jewelry collection seized by US Customs at Honolulu Airport when the family sought exile in 1986.

MCCOY PAVILION | 1201 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96814
Public Hours: Open daily, 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Admission: Free

Across the street from The Hub in Ala Moana Regional Park, McCoy Pavilion beckons beachgoers and passersby as a complementary site to The Hub. The Pavilion features an additional four works, including the work of Paul Pfeiffer (Philippines (born Hawaiʻi) | United States). Pfeiffer’s 3 Figures In A Room(2015-16) is a gripping multi-channel video and sound installation documenting the infamous Manny Pacquiao–Floyd Mayweather boxing match, often referred to as the “fight of the century.” The work depicts all 12 rounds of the fight as originally broadcast with the exception of the audio – Pfeiffer has stripped all of the background noise from the footage, leaving only sonically-magnified sounds of the two fighter’s bodies and gloves moving about and making contact. Another highlight is a new sculptural commission by Maika’i Tubbs (Kānaka Maoli | United States) who is noted for creating works from found detritus to address themes of obsolescence, ecology and the politics of consumption.

INSTITUTIONAL VENUES

Honolulu Biennial 2019 has partnered with three institutional venues – Bishop Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, and the John Young Museum of Art at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa – to present the works of eleven artists. Geographically, these sites serve as the Biennial’s west-most, central, and east-most anchors in the distribution of HB19 sites across Honolulu. Collectively, they represent the support of Honolulu’s institutional and arts communities for inclusion and activation of contemporary arts and indigenous perspectives across the local and Pacific arts landscape.

BISHOP MUSEUM | 1525 Bernice St, Honolulu, HI 96813
Public Hours: Open daily, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 
Admission: Free with HB19 All-Access Pass; General: $24.95 Adults, $21.95 Seniors, $16.95 Youth (4-17); Kamaʻāina: $14.95 Adults, $12.95 Seniors, $10.95 Youth (4-17); Free for Bishop Museum members.

Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Originally established to house the extensive royal collection of Hawaiian objects and heirlooms, it has expanded to include objects and archives about Hawaiʻi and the wider Pacific.To Make/Wrong/Right/Now at Bishop Museum presents artworks that are informed by a critical engagement with the museum’s collections and the histories these entail.

The Honolulu Biennial 2019 at Bishop Museum starts with a new site specific installation by Paul Pfeiffer (Philippines (born Hawaiʻi) | United States) in the Picture Gallery. The installation revisits the archival origins of the Picture Gallery to create a palace of memory anchored by the portrait of four-year-old Prince Albert Edward Kaleiopapa-a-Kamehameha. In the Pacific Hall, Chamorro cultural practitioner James Bamba (Chamorro | Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) presents a suite of agak (pandanus) weavings, including pre-contact items, inspired by written accounts of controversial museum collecting practices in Guam in the early 20th century. In the Native Garden, a new commission by Bruna Stude (Croatia | Hawaiʻi) beckons consideration of invasive species in a series of photograms created with palladium lime juice and alaea (Kauai clay) suspended from an ʻulu tree, and a new commission from the Hoʻoulu ʻĀina Artist Collective (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi), an interactive structure built from locally-sourced materials, offers perspective on land and cultural sustainability.

HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART | 900 S. Beretania St., Honolulu, HI 96814
Public Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. 
Admission: Free with HB19 All-Access Pass; $20 General Admission, $10 Kamaʻaina Admission, Free for 18 & under, Free for HOMA members.

Known for its vast collections and work to bring relevant and transformative experiences through the study, preservation, presentation, and creation of art, the Honolulu Museum of Art (HOMA) is a natural venue for four HB19 works, including two new commissions that will span two of the museum’s changing galleries.

At HOMA, the HB19 experience begins in Gallery 14 with Gallup Motel Butchering (2011), a four-channel video installation by Postcommodity (Cherokee, Mestizo | United States) that examines the contested space of tribal homeland, tradition, globalism, commerce, cultural continuity and intersubjective gaze from an indigenous perspective.

In Gallery 19, Kapulani Landgraf (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi) will present ‘Auʻa (2019), a new photographic installation of 100 portraits of Hawaiian leaders superimposed with text that draws on the words of Kānaka Maoli rights activist, educator and writer Haunani-Kay Trask. Suspended overhead, visitors to HOMA will also view a new commission from Marie Watt (Seneca | United States) composed of products made during the artist’s sewing workshops at HOMA and the Bishop Museum this January. InWe Dreamt Deaf (2015) from Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit, Unangax̂ | United States), the front half of a taxidermy polar bear with bullet holes in its side appears to crawl forward while its tail end is pressed flat into the ground, trying to escape a brutal fate at the hands of humans in a deeply impactful statement about traumatic pasts.
 
JOHN YOUNG MUSEUM OF ART | University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, Krauss Hall, 2500 Dole St., Honolulu, HI 96822
Public Hours: Sunday-Friday, 12:00-4:00 p.m. Closed holidays.
Admission: Free

The John Young Museum was envisioned by the late artist John Young, part of the gallery system of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). Opened in 1999, the museum is home to the John Young’s collection of artworks from Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, and Mesoamerica; its programming promotes, supports and sustains museum education initiatives for UHM and the local community.

At the John Young Museum of Art, large audiences of students, faculty and visitors will have an opportunity to embrace the works of two featured HB19 artists. Visitors can sink into a red bean bag chair in a darkened space to experience Dengue, Dengue, Dengue (2017), a three-channel video installation from Guan Xiao (China). This audio-video montage of abstract and meaningful images reflects a ‘panchronic’ existence, in which the past, present and future share the same space. Acts of transmission and the deployment of images are processes that inform the work Histories (Possibilities) (2015) byRaymond Boisjoly (Haida | Canada). The work, created by a document scanner, captures a fleeting frame of the anti-colonial film Statues Also Die (1953) by Chris Marker, Alain Resnais and Ghislain Cloquet playing on a tablet.

DOWNTOWN LOOP VENUES
 
The downtown loop of Honolulu features many of the city’s most important historic buildings in complement and contrast to the bustling nature of the city’s urban center. This year, Ali’iolani Hale, Foster Botanical Garden, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and YWCA Laniakea will host works from 13 HB19 artists to include 10 new commissions and 10 site-specific installations.

ALI’IOLANI HALE | 417 S. King St, Honolulu, HI 96813
Public Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Closed holidays. 
Admission: Free

Built between 1871-1874, Aliʻiōlani Hale was constructed by Kamehameha V as a Royal Palace that was later reassigned as a courthouse by his successor King Kalakaua. In 1893, Aliʻiōlani Hale was the place of the reading of the declaration of the Provisional Government that marked the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

The Honolulu Biennial 2019 at Aliʻiōlani Hale will be the site of a major installation by artist Bernice Akamine (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi). Kalo (2015–present) is an installation of eighty-seven taro plants with pōhaku (stone) representing the corm of the plant and leaves made of newsprint representing each page of the Kūʻe Anti Annexation Petitions 1897 delivered by Queen Liliʻuokalani in Washington D.C. after the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi by the United States.

FOSTER BOTANICAL GARDEN | 180 N. Vineyard Ave, Honolulu, HI 96813
Public Hours: Open daily, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. 
Admission: Free with HB19 All-Access Pass; $5 for Adults, $3 for Hawaiʻi Residents, $1 for Children 6-12, Free for Children under 5, Free for Foster Botanical Garden members.

Foster Botanical Garden is a 14-acre collection of mature tropical plants, a heritage garden and retreat nestled amidst the bustle of downtown Honolulu. It is a site for exploring topics of sustainability, recreation and the complex relationship between man and environment.

The Honolulu Biennial 2019 at Foster Botanical Garden will present six works, including four new commissions. Artist Bruna Stude (Croatia | Hawaiʻi) will show a series of photograms that highlight the intricate wing patterns of endangered endemic insects. The patterns are enlarged and abstracted, each photogram scaled to reflect the width of one of the surrounding trees. For the artist, the lightness and transparency of the paper refers to the fragility of the environment. Contemporary visual artistAmy Yao (United States) will create a sculptural installation made from algae-based foam – an emerging technology for surf industries in California, where it is being used for surfboard blanks and sandals – and test this man-made solution against the levels of non-biodegradable trash and pollution in the water. Yao will bring forms and shapes together into a terrarium display, the environment for their planned, low-impact disintegration over the course of the exhibition.

In another new commission, Leland Miyano (Okinawa | Hawaiʻi) will construct a large scale canoe from invasive botanical materials collected from the Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden in Kaneohe. Miyano is an Oʻahu-based artist known for blending his roles as naturalist, landscape designer, and sculptor into a legacy of work that explores man’s relationship to nature and often reflects cycles of regeneration in nature and environmental issues. Community and volunteers are invited to engage in this project from start to finish. Misaki Kawai (Japan | United States), who is regarded for her playful, nonchalant aesthetic will create a new sculpture in the garden as a new commission.

HAWAI’i STATE ART MUSEUM | 250 S. Hotel St., 2nd Fl., Honolulu, HI 96813
Public Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (extended hours on the first Friday of each month from 6:00–9:00 p.m.) Closed on state and federal holidays.
Admission: Free

The Hawaiʻi State Art Museum (HiSAM), part of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, uses exhibitions and programming to promote, perpetuate, preserve and encourage culture and the arts as central to the quality of life for the people of Hawaiʻi. As such, HiSAM is centrally located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building in close proximity to HB19’s other downtown sites and plays a key role in connecting the local community with the arts.

At the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, visitors can pause to take in the works of Cruzvillegas andAkamine on the exterior lawns before entering the museum to experience three installations. On the ground floor, Oʻahu-based artist ʻImaikalani Kalāhele (Kānaka Maoli | Hawaiʻi) will present a selection of miniature sculptural and woven artworks composed from cast-off materials from his collection. Janet Lilo (Niue, Ngā Puhi, Sāmoa | Aotearoa) will create an immersive installation comprised of hundreds of cardboard laptops. Mata Aho Collective (Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa | Aotearoa) will present a site-specific textile work for HiSAM’s exterior porticos, informed by their research of indigenous textile collections at the Bishop Museum, Cambridge Museum and the British Museum.

CHINATOWN | Various sites
Public Hours: Varies
Admission: Free

The Honolulu Biennial 2019 will extend into the hustle and bustle of Honolulu’s historic Chinatown, the earliest city-center of Honolulu. It has persisted through several economic downturns and two major fires and remains a vibrant commercial and arts district.

HB19 will present two new commissions in Chinatown. Rosanna Raymond, (Samoa, Tuvalu | Aotearoa) will create a new iteration of her site-specific, multi-disciplinary installation SaVAge K’lub(2010-present). The work takes its name and inspiration from the gentlemen’s club of the same name founded in London in 1857, later establishing branches around the world. The use of capital letters in ‘SaVAge’ references the Samoan concept of vā as an active space that binds people together through the creation and maintanence of relationships. The SaVAge K’lub itself is an open group of artists who come together to acti.VA.te installation spaces and objects. Chinatown will host theSaVAge K’lub Headquarters,an evolving installation and programmatic experience that welcomes artists, communities and passersby to engage over the course of the Biennial.

The LED light work of artist Ei Arakawa (Japan | United States) will also pop up in early March at various, unexpected establishments through Chinatown.

YWCA LANIAKEA | 1040 Richards St., Honolulu, HI 96813
Public Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Sunday from 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Closed Saturday.
Admission: Free

The YWCA Laniākea literally translated means ‘open skies’ or ‘wide horizons,’ a well-suited name for its open-air corridors, courtyard and pool – a respite within the bustling business district of downtown Honolulu. Laniākea is home to an era of tremendous social awareness and change in Hawaiʻi. Its history inspires generations of women to rededicate themselves to the cause of community service as part of the YWCA’s broader mission to empower women and eliminate racism – a fitting partner site for HB19. The site will host four artists, including three newly commissioned works.

A central feature of the installations at YWCA will be a new fiber-based commission by Maui-based artist Chenta Laury (African American | Hawaiʻi). Seattle-based artist Ellen Lesperance (United States) will present a new commission of four paintings that recreate knit garments worn by women in historic acts of civil disobedience. Central Pacific Time (Kānaka Maoli, United States | Hawaiʻi)is both a collective created by Roger and Lei Bong and their online radio station streaming from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The collective’s mission is to provide a platform for the community to explore and navigate Hawaiʻi’s past, present and future through sound and story. They will present a new interactive audio installation titled, Wiliau: Entwined Currents. The work reinterprets compositions written by Queen Liliʻuokalani during her imprisonment (1895-1896), allowing visitors to manipulate the audio tracks through movement.

Honolulu Biennial runs from March 8-May 5, 2019. The invitation-only preview day is March 7.

Honolulu Biennial 2019’s Hub, totaling 18,000 square feet, will be located in Ward Village, a planned community by the Howard Hughes Corporation, the Founding Co-title Sponsor of HB19.

Many, not all, of the exhibitions are free and open to the public. Purchase an All-Access Pass for unlimited entry to all venues for the duration of the Honolulu Biennial 2019 from March 8-May 5, 2019: https://tickets.honoluluboxoffice.com/e/honolulu-biennial-2019.