Visual Arts
I am a California based painter and multimedia textile artist using imagery of abundance to examine American colonial culture and perception. Through pattern, saturation, and material integration, I reflect the absurdity of contemporary Western life. My cultural identity as part of the Hawaiian diasphora deeply impacts the symbology and context of my work. I am examining how artificial and industrial imagery has framed both Americana and the contemporary indigenous experience.A significant component to my practice involves layering tropical and Western motifs, visually reconciling my layered sense of self . I am reclaiming Hawaiian imagery in order to assert the worthiness of Pacifica women outside of a sexualized caricature, using fabrics ubiquitous to paradise to recontextualize preconceptions about indigenous culture while reconciling with generations of exploitation. Fellow islamder artists like Joiri Minaya and the Lure of the Locale series by Brandon Ng have established precedent for a critical lense on tropical aesthetics. My exuberant color palettes and kitch-laden, overtly feminine sensibility contrasts the bleak realities of colonial assimilation. This visual seduction allows the viewer to indulge in the pleasures of excess, consciously or not.