Honolulu Biennial 2019 Announces Title and Approach, First List of Artists and Appointment of Assistant Curator

Josh Tengan, Assitant Curator
Image courtesy of Honolulu Biennial

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

Honolulu Biennial Foundation (HBF) announced the title for the second iteration of the Honolulu Biennial—To Make Wrong / Right / Now—drawn from a poem by participating Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) artist Imaikalani Kalahele:

The source
of
my origins
lie beneath my feet,

the breath
in my chest
originated
in Pō
the destiny
of my race
is
plunged into
my gut
and
infesting
my veins

with a new nationalism,
old spiritualism,
and a need
to make wrong
right
now.

— Imaikalani Kalahele, “Manifesto” from Kalahele (Honolulu: Kalamakū Press)

Curatorial Approach

The curatorial approach for To Make Wrong / Right / Now is related to Kalahele’s “Manifesto” and ideas pulled from the ʻaha—a single sennit cord made of many strands that can be gathered together with a series of knots to form a networked carrier. Thematic strands will be borne by the artists and bound together by a sense of genealogical reckoning (acknowledging the cord connecting past and future generations), indigenous knowledge, non-Western technologies of land use, creativity, materiality and awareness, decolonising spirits, mana wahine (female empowerment), ancient histories and mythologies knotted with contemporary conditions, and reverence for wahi pana (storied places). The curatorial approach doesn’t presume all of the kaona (meanings hidden out in the open) of ‘aha, but is the beginning of making a Biennial of, for and by this place by recognising it as a unique opportunity to gather, remember, share, learn and move forward together in this place.

Over forty artists and artist collectives will respond to the approach by activating select sites on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island. One-third of the artists will be from Hawaiʻi and two-thirds will be drawn from countries, autonomous regions, territories, kingdoms, and illegally-occupied, annexed, or unceded lands connected by the Pacific including: Aotearoa, Bougainville, Canada, China, Guåhan, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, the continental United States, and others.

First List of Artists

The Curators are pleased to announce the first list of participating artists for the second Honolulu Biennial:

Bernice Akamine (Kānaka Maoli/Japanese-American/Hawaiʻi)
Ei Arakawa (Japan)
Raymond Boisjoly (Haida/Canada)
Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico)
Imaikalani Kalahele (Kānaka Maoli/Hawaiʻi)
Lee Kit (Hong Kong)
Kapulani Landgraf  (Kānaka Maoli/Hawaiʻi)
Janet Lilo (Ngā Puhi/Niue/Samoa/Aotearoa)
Mata Aho Collective (Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa/Aotearoa)
Marianne Nicolson (Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw/Canada)
Paul Pfeiffer (United States/Philippines)
Rosanna Raymond, SaVAge K’lub (Samoa/Tuvalu/Aotearoa)
Natalie Robertson (Ngāti Porou/Clann Dhònnchaidh/Aotearoa)
Chiharu Shiota (Japan)
Kalisolaite ‘Uhila (Tonga/Aotearoa)
Guan Xiao (China)
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES—Young-hae Chang/Marc Voge (Korea/United States)

Appointment of Assistant Curator

HBF is also pleased to announce the appointment of Josh Tengan as Assistant Curator. Tengan joins Curators Nina Tonga and Scott Lawrimore. Tengan is a Honolulu-born and based curator and project manager in the visual arts. Since 2014, he has worked with local and Native Hawaiian artists, through the arts non-profit Puʻuhonua Society, to deliver Hawaiʻi’s largest annual thematic contemporary art exhibition, CONTACT. He holds a curatorial studies MA with Distinction from Newcastle University (UK) and a BA in Fine Art from Westmont College. As the Assistant Curator for the second edition of Honolulu Biennial, Tengan brings a deep understanding of Hawaiʻi and its practitioners.

Running from March 8 – May 5, 2019 on Oʻahu, Lawrimore, Tengan and Tonga have expanded this multi-venue biennial to include sites on one of the neighbor islands, Hawaiʻi. More information on the specific sites for Honolulu Biennial and the complete list of participating artists will be announced later this year.

About Honolulu Biennial Foundation

Honolulu Biennial Foundation (HBF) supports the local arts infrastructure with a global outreach by presenting Honolulu Biennial, a visual arts festival for Hawaiʻi  focused on exhibiting artists from the countries and cultures linked by the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the year, HBF serves the local community by presenting educational outreach programs, smaller scale exhibitions and professional development opportunities for the local arts community with its Visions of the Future initiative. To learn more visit: www.honolulubiennial.org