Not Alone

Very much in response to this moment in humanity, Above the Equator’s first exhibition, Not Alone, offers a timely reminder on the interconnectivity of humanity to the natural world and nonlinear connections between ancestral histories and present realities, both personal and collective.

Bernice Akamine presents a new, large-scale, multimedia floating installation featuring jellyfish as a metaphor for ancestral connections found in the Native Hawaiian creation chant, kumulipo, to the present. The 35 ethereal beaded jellyfish that constitute Pololia (2021), comments on the very real changes the climate crisis is affecting our shared and global ocean ecosystem.

Nancy Amaka navigates deeply personal memories of trauma through documented performance on Hawai‘i Island and Oahu. The resulting photographs from the series Ije | Ézè (2017-2019), reveal shared similarities between Hawai‘i and the Nigerian rainforest where she grew up. Inspired by philosophies that are rooted in her native culture, she examines the familial connection between those who have departed and the next generation while simultaneously addressing intergenerational trauma. In reverence to her host culture, the Kānaka Maoli, Amaka asks permission of the ‘āina (land) to accept her and her daughter on the Hawai‘i Island through documented practice revealing the shared similarities between Judeo-Christian beliefs, Native Nigerian animism, and Native Hawaiian spirituality.

Not Alone

March 5- April 15, 2021

Bernice Akamine | Nancy Amaka

Lau Building, 184 Kamehameha Ave, Suite 190A

Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720

Virtual programming will be announced later this month.

The Artists

Bernice Akamine

A life long learner, Bernice Akamine began to pursue a career in art later in life than many artists. Akamine chose to raise a family and then return to school; during her studies at the University of Hawai‘i she rediscovered art; deciding that doing what one loves is most important, she changed her major and was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts in glass, 1994 and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture and glass, 1999. Akamine has been taking Hawaiian cultural classes and workshops throughout much of her life and during the summer and winter of 2010 attended the Hawaiian Ohana for Education in the Arts in Waimea. She is recognized for her kapa and work with waiho’olu’u, Hawaiian natural dyes. Akamine’s grandmother, Kaha Halela’au was a kahuna lapa’au, traditional Hawaiian healer, descended from generations of healers, and her mother, Audrey Elliott was a lauhala weaver.

Akamine’s work can be found in the permanent collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, Oregon; Australian Museum, Sydney and the Queensland Art Gallery/Museum of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia. Akamine received a Honolulu Biennial 2019, Golden Hibiscus, Honorable Mention Award; 2015 Native Hawaiian Artist Fellowship, from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation; Community Scholar Award from the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, 2012; Award of Excellence, Fiber Hawaii 2003; and was a Visiting Artist at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, 1999. Akamine has also served as a Native Arts Review Panelist in 2005 for the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; a Hawaii Craftsmen Board of Director from 2011-2012 and is currently a Board Member of The Friends of Amy Greenwell Garden, Kealakekua. Born on O’ahu and raised between Hawai‘i and Japan, Akamine lives and works in Volcano, Hawai‘i.

Nanci Amaka

Nanci Amaka is an interdisciplinary artist exploring ideas surrounding trauma, ancestry, memory and West African Animism. Working from the theory that traumatic events challenge perceptions of power, autonomy, and identity; her work explores the liminal space between these experiences and language. Nanci received a BFA/BA in Visual Critical Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has exhibited at Root Division, San Francisco; International Center for Photography, New York, NY; Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, CA; Bermudez Projects NELA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Hawai‘i State Art Museum x Mori, Honolulu, HI; Honolulu Museum of Art School; Aupuni, Honolulu, HI; and most recently, in 2020, gave a screening and artist talk on her work at the Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Museum of Art.

Amaka was born in Nigeria and spent her formative years in a rural rainforest village in south eastern Nigeria. She now lives and works in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.

Cleanse | Three Walls (2017)

Please contact us for a private viewing.