Socially Engaged Art in Pacific Islands

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This research led to the production of original artworks for ten exhibitions and four published writings. Four public forums for artists, curators and scholars were also organized to reflect on new directions in socially engaged art in Asia Pacific held in Fukuoka, Tokyo and Okinawa.In Okinawa, research was conducted on maritime space in Okinawa as a connective tissue between islands in Japan and the Pacific. The results of this research were presented in the artwork Sea Birth for two exhibitions, the first held in Nagano Sea Birth: part one (TENKU Art Festival 20 September 20- 29 October 2017) and the next in Okinawa Sea Birth: part two (Ichihanari Art Festival 18 November- 2 December 2017). This artwork production is reflected upon in relation to other artistic perspectives on spirits in Okinawa for the peer-reviewed academic essay "Spirits of Tsureshima: Creative Storytelling with Islanders" that will soon be published in the academic journal, Shima: the international journal of research into island cultures.The chief aim of this research is to contribute to scholarly debates on the meaning of socially engaged artworks in the field. Because perspectives from Asia Pacific in Eurocentric debates were absent, symposia, artist workshops, exhibitions of artwork and public lectures were organized in order to expand perspectives on socially engaged art today. These activities will continue after the fellowship in many ways, one of the most noteworthy is the solo museum exhibition of my new works titled, Molokai Window (Honolulu Museum of Art, 26 April- 15 September 2018).