toqa

Isabel Sicat

b. 1993, New York; lives and works in Manila and Honolulu, Kona, Oʻahu

Aiala

b. 1995, Honolulu; lives and works in Honolulu and Manila

hawai‘i triennial 2022

@ FOSTER BOTANICAL GARDEN

Midnight Smoothie is a collective work nurtured by a cast of friends, family, and accomplices, and grounded in an immersive experience that merges the clothing of Midnight Smoothie with a film featuring the collection’s pieces in action. Developed for HT22, as part of the larger Extreme Sport Resort project, the collection is a response to the centers of Manila and Honolulu and the specific context of Foster Botanical Garden in Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu. Both the adrenaline and tranquility of ‘the outdoors’ swirl together in a two-part theme-park-inspired installation within Foster’s orchid conservatory and the Friends of Honolulu Botanical Gardens gift shop. The overarching production was the fruit of the inaugural Kaimana Artist Residency. Collection prints were made in collaboration with local designer Tutuvi; the film was directed by Paco Raterta and produced by Ryan Zarra; the installation experience was crafted by RenkoFloral, Patrick Parsons, Jotapepsi and Hiraya; and the flowers included throughout were cared for by the staff and many friends of the garden.

Toqa’s tropical endeavor is to come together and create new fictions. Through Sport Resort, their multifunctional aesthetic bridge between activewear and resortwear — a hybrid of fashion, fine art, and theme park — they seek to expand the visual vocabulary of island identities. It is in the universal address and all-inclusive nature of the theme park that Toqa locates their interests in tourism and travel. The thrill-seeking premise of Toqa’s practice is akin to a rollercoaster ride: the actual work is the exhibition, our clothing existing as props, memorabilia, and artifacts of excitement and euphoria appropriate to one’s first adventurous expedition. The discovery of an expansive island identity is exhilarating — so Sit Back, Strap in, and Enjoy the Ride!

Toqa’s artistic practice is an unabashed embrace of the apparatus of amusement. In this ecosystem of entertainment are many smaller productions (advertisement; soundtrack; TV spinoff). Structuring their art practice in the same way that a director approaches a blockbuster, Toqa’s installation work incorporates a cast of friends, family, and accomplices — presenting an active universe co-authored by the hands of many personalities. At times gloriously cartoony, at others, moody and serious in its cinematic ambition. But always, by virtue of a performance-based methodology, Toqa supplies a framework of accessibility, with Isabel and Aiala inserting themselves, embodying various archetypes, and amplifying others to their loudest frequency — encouraging a discourse between audience and image. The two co-founders’ partnership, an enduring navigation between Honolulu and Manila, between Isabel’s and Aiala’s constant searches to situate and discover their own island identities, is especially befitting this New Normal’s investigation into kinship and migration. It has never seemed sustainable to commit to only one version of dress, of activity, of self: but has always been obvious to resist the singular lei-laden tropical trope. We find Toqa transitioning from its origin at one tropical isle to the logical relocation of another — a complex liminality navigated by a spirit of narrative spontaneity.