FEATURED ARTISTS:

Mary Babcock

Kaili Chun

DAKOgamay: Martha and Jake Atienza

James Jack

Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner + Joy Lehuanani Enomoto

Charles Lim

Angela Tiatia

FEATURED PROJECTS:
+  Atlas of (Remote) Islands and Sea Level Rise, by Christina Gerhardt, UC Press, 2021, in press.

+ HighWaterLine: Honolulu organized by Christina Gerhardt and Adele Balderston

INUNDATION refers to both the watery disasters of climate change and a dominant emotional response — feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of system change. The exhibition features nine contemporary artists based in the Pacific who experience the climate emergency as an extension of long-term colonial, extractive and development forces that have made their communities especially vulnerable.  With communities forcibly displaced by sea-level rise and storms, islands bombed, coral reefs mined, and local and indigenous environmental knowledge lost, resiliency seems difficult to imagine. And yet, communities around the Pacific are rising. 
                                                                                                                
Immersive, powerful, energetic, and undulating—the aesthetics of water is a dominant feature in the art of INUNDATION.  The experience of being surrounded by water, the experience of wading in muliwai and lo’i, of being shifted in the ocean's tides—and thriving—can compel viewers to reimagine water and the climate. In contrast to the pervasive imagery of climate change as watery disaster, keeping viewers in a state of overwhelm, the artists in INUNDATION represent water as a generative force and fundamental to survival. Ultimately, the imagery reminds us that water needs to be respected, protected, and allowed to pursue its continual movement. 
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The multi-media videos, installation, and community performance projects help to create a space to process raw emotions, inspire collective imagination, and generate capacity for creative, actionable, and communal responses to our watery climate.  If the climate can change, why can’t we?

Artist Talks, Performance And Opening 
Sunday Jan. 19     ART Auditorium + Gallery
@ 1:30 pm  speaking (of) waters in and across the Pacific
@ 3:00 pm poetry performance by Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner and reception

details about PROGRAMMING coming soon

James Jack Sea Birth III, 2018

Angela Tiatia, Holding On, 2015

more images coming soon!