Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 is Ending With a Bang at HiSAM

Photo: Yusuke Sato

Artists will go all out this First Friday, May 6, as the Hawai‘i Triennial’s 11-week citywide contemporary art festival draws to a close. Check out this diverse gathering of exciting creatives at HiSAM for HT22’s closing celebration.

Photo: Courtesy of TheQueeries

TheQueeries, a University of Hawai‘i queer dance collective, will kick off a night to remember. Led by UH dance instructor Sami A. K. Akuna, whose alter ego is the fabulous drag performer Cocoa Chandelier, this show in the Sculpture Garden is guaranteed to surprise.

Artist collective Ulu Kupu will share a trailer for its film Pō‘ele Wai inside HiSAM’s Passion On Display space on the first floor. The film focuses on the recent crisis at Kapūkakī, also known as Red Hill, when jet fuel leaked into part of Oʻahu’s water supply. In the POD space, a handmade quilt by Hui Hoʻokino Hālāwai, an Indigenous māhū collective, will be unveiled. The quilt was created as a response to the contaminated water events at Kapūkakī.

SEE ALSO: The Hawai‘i Triennial 2022 Takes Over HiSAM’s Exhibition Spaces

Photos: Courtesy of Richard Hamasaki, Iwasa Eiichiro

Amplified Poetry will shake things up on the Sculpture Garden stage with multitalented artist Richard Hamasaki, whose work is featured at HiSAM as part of HT22. Hamasaki, who has combined art with activism for more than 40 years, will perform spoken word poetry accompanied by shakuhachi master Christopher Yohmei Blasdel.

Photo: Yu Xing Li Yang

THE TETORAPOTZ, a “band born out of an art exhibition,” will finish out the evening. Members will fly in from Japan and Paris for this one-night-only performance at HiSAM. HT22 artist Izumi Kato is a part of this band of artists that perform at each other’s exhibitions and art events while wearing masks that they’ve created. You can take part in a hands-on workshop to put together your own unique mask out of Japanese washi paper, along with bells and whistles. Rock out together with THE TETORAPOTZ in your mask and keep it as a souvenir for a memorable night at the museum.

Free admission, 250 S. Hotel St., Friday, May 6, 6–9 p.m., @hawaiistateartmuseum

Lisa Shiroma is a correspondent for HiSAM and is an artist and art educator. Lisa is the former owner of the HiSAM Museum Gallery Shop, which she ran with partners Aly Ishikuni-Sasaki and Travis Sasaki from Mori by Art + Flea from 2017 to June 2020.