Artists envision Hawaii in 1,000 years

Sixty-eight contemporary artists imagine the future of our islands in “Contact 3017: Hawai‘i in a Thousand Years,” now on exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art School. Their far-ranging visions tell of the impact of climate change, depicting a Hawaii that is underwater due to sea level rise; illustrate the fragility of the islands and the life they support; and project the fate of the population, including the continuing plight of the homeless.

Local art collective Paradise Cove commissioned 10 new artworks and curated the mixed-media exhibit, which includes sound and video installations. Included is a special sound booth in the “nano gallery” near the lobby staircase offering futuristic remixes by several DJs. Davey Shindig offers a robotic take on Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu’s “Huaka‘i a Pele,” and what the artist calls “dystopian” and “utopian” versions of Haunani Kahalewai’s “Aloha ‘Oe,” all available on SoundCloud.

Cushions provide comfortable seating to watch “Hi Tide” by Third Object, a video loop accompanied by techno music and projected onto the ceiling of a room built into the main gallery. The work imagines an underwater kingdom inhabited by mutants born from African slaves who were thrown overboard during passage to the New World.

A video installation, “Sensitive Real Estate, 2017,” by Alec Singer and Maxfield Smith of Napalm, invites viewers to dive into Hawaii’s flooded future via images projected on a wall. The piece includes a fish tank containing the Thirty Meter Telescope proposed for Mauna Kea and tourist relics, such as a dashboard hula doll and King Kamehameha statue.

Maui artist Melissa Chimera’s oil on canvas, “Inheritance, Haleakala,” celebrates the national park with a mandalalike design incorporating three rare species: kiwikiu (Maui parrotbill), oha wai (Clermontia samuelii from the bellflower family), and nohoanu (Geranium arboreum or Hawaiian red-flowered geranium).

Mark Chai’s “Forever Pele, 2017” sculpture made from reclaimed wood appears as smooth as obsidian. In the artist’s statement he says, simply: “Pele is the past/Pele is now/Pele is the future.”

On display in the mezzanine, Diane Nushida-Tokuno’s “Shrine, 2017” presents an idealistic image of Hawaii as a meditative sanctuary. She is offering visitors a native ihiihilauakea fern to take home and grow in the garden.

Curators will provide a guided tour of the “Contact 3017” exhibit at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, in addition to several other planned events. Download artwork captions and artist statements on your mobile device here. A VR code can also be scanned at the exhibit.