06/13/2024
Coinciding with Ho‘oulu Lāhui: 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts and the Pacific Arts Association present Hawaiian Futurisms, a new exhibition in Honolulu Hale featuring Noah Harders and Nanea Lum with a series of programs including a public art video projection and symposium.
The ʻōlelo noʻeau or Hawaiian proverbial saying, “I ka wā ma mua, I ka wā ma hope” or “the future is in the past” is the theoretical grounding in which music, art, and activism represent an aesthetic and praxis of Hawaiian Futurism. This exhibition showcases the work of two Kānaka Maoli artists, Noah Harders and Nanea Lum. By weaving ancestral knowledge into Kānaka methods of cultural expression, these artists create art that addresses the problems of the present and embodies the actualization of the futures by looking to the past for guidance, protocols, and answers.
Harders presents photographic works of his floral projects that employ the practice of making lei to turn found organic objects into wondrous Oceanic expression. The act of the flowers growing, the act of picking and weaving/stringing it together, then finally being received, all speak of the sum to the whole – the individual relating and reverberating within the collective.
Lum presents digital prints on kapa with photographic images documenting Nu‘uanu Stream. This series of work coincides with a larger temporary public art video projection titled Nu‘uanu Streaming that will occur on June 15 from 7:00-9:00 pm on Nu’uanu Ave and Hotel Street that memorializes a freshwater stream that once flowed through the Chinatown area. This video projection will “flood” the street with a moving image of water that assists with a collective remembrance of the wai that once flowed and nourished the area.
In conjunction with this exhibition, Pacific Arts Association will host a symposium and artist talks that invites the community to join in discussion around art and literature. For more information visit: https://honolulumoca.org/hawaiian-futurisms-exhibition-and-symposium/
For more information about the Hawaiian Futurism program contact: [email protected]
Hawaiian Futurisms Exhibition: Nanea Lum and Noah Harders
Opening event on June 12, 2024 from 4:00-6:00 pm
On view until June 18, 2023
Honolulu Hale, 530 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
Pacific Arts Association One-day Symposium and Talanoa
Saturday, June 15, 9:30 am-4:30 pm
Mission Memorial Auditorium, 550 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
Nu‘uanu Streaming: Public Video projection by Nanea Lum and Collaborators
Saturday, June 15, 7:00-9:00 pm
Nu‘uanu Avenue at Hotel Street
Nu‘uanu Streaming is co-sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, Hawai‘i Contemporary, and Downtown Art Center, and is funded by Native Arts & Culture Foundation 2023 Lift-Early Career Support from Native Artists Program.
About the artists and collaborators:
Noah Harders
Noah Harders was born and raised in Waikapū where he lives on land inhabited by his ancestors for hundreds of years. Having attended the School of Art Institute of Chicago, Noah returned home to create wearable art made of flowers, leaves and other found organic materials. Noah describes his growth as an artist spanning multiple practices including installations and photography as a “crazy progression of finding myself.” His technical skill in fabricating wearing pieces is fully revealed in his expressive self portraits shot in his home studio drawing us all into his surrealist fantasy. Harders reimagines flora, fauna and found objects through passion, experimentation and love for the arts.
Nanea Lum
Nanea Lum is a Native Hawaiian artist based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Her art practice ranges from kapa to large scale paintings, printmaking, and time-based media. Lum received her Masters of Fine Arts from University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her areas of specialization include Hawaiian traditional cultural practice and the decolonization of contemporary art by applying methods of place-based learning and Indigenous knowledge. Native Hawaiian artist Nanea Lum is based in Honolulu. Her research-based practice ranges from kapa (Hawaiian wauke beaten bark fiber materials) to large-scale oil paintings. Nanea’s kapa is produced from plant material that she harvested and processed, dyed with inks from homemade charcoal, earth pigments, and plants. Her paintings often explore the intersections of land, sky, and sea through concepts and stories of creation.
Pacific Arts Association
The Pacific Arts Association (PAA), founded in 1974 and established as an association in 1978, is an international organization devoted to the study of all the arts of Oceania. PAA provides a forum for dialogue and awareness about Pacific art and culture. By connecting individuals and institutions around the world, PAA encourages greater cooperation among those who are involved with the creation, study, and exhibition of Pacific art.
The Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts is the public arts agency for the City and County of Honolulu.
