Golden Hibiscus Award

The Honolulu Biennial Foundation announces Hawai’i- based artist Leland Miyano as the recipient of the Golden Hibiscus Award, a new $10,000 unrestricted cash prize given to a participating artist or artist collective in the 2019 Honolulu Biennial whose artwork, in the opinion of a guest jury, merits special recognition. Honorable mention and a cash award of $1,000 goes to Hawai’i-based artist Bernice Akamine for her work Kalo, 2016–present. The award reflects the mission of the Honolulu Biennial Foundation by recognizing artists from the Pacific and their contribution to the field of contemporary art.

Leland Miyano has received the award for Huaka’i / A Wake, 2019 a special commission for the Honolulu Biennial 2019 at Foster Botanical Garden for which Miyano enlisted the help of friends, volunteers and countless community-hands over the course of the six-week weeks leading up to the Biennial’s opening. Huaka’i / A Wake explores themes of sustainability, voyaging, and our reciprocal relationship with the island environment. The double-hull canoe form, approximately 50’ long and 10’ wide, is constructed with invasive plants and other found materials, primarily from Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden in Kāneʻohe on the Windward side of Oʻahu. The hull was shaped by binding together long branches of strawberry guava, fiddlewood and rose apple. The deck of the canoe houses a garden of canoe plants, an echo of the first Polynesians who settled the Hawaiian Islands nearly 2,000 years ago and is a reminder that the goal of the voyage is ultimately to find land.

Honorable mention goes to Bernice Akamine for her installation of Kalo, 2016-present, which features 87 kalo sculptures bearing the signature pages of the 1897 Hui Aloha ‘Āina Anti- Annexation Petitions and hand-drawn maps of traditional land divisions from the five islands represented in the petitions: Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, and Hawai‘i Island. Each basalt stone was sourced from community and represents the importance of land in a Kanaka Maoli worldview. The installation is presented at Aliʻiōlani Hale, where annexation occured and Queen Liliʻuokalani was deposed by the Committee of Safety led by Sanford B. Dole.

The award reflects the mission of Hawaiʻi Contemporary in recognizing artists from the Pacific and their contribution to the field of contemporary art. The jury is composed of arts professionals who specialize in this field as well as the diverse contexts brought together in this geographical region. The prize was introduced in 2019 by Hawaiʻi Contemporary (formerly Honolulu Biennial Foundation) with the generous support of Soichiro Fukutake, Michael and Kristen Chan, Yoshiko Mori, Jonathan Kindred and Yusaku Maezawa.