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Join us at Ogden Contemporary Arts during Ogden's First Friday Art Stroll for a live performance by Lani Asunción. This performance begins at 6 PM and is presented in conjunction with our current exhibition, RECLAMATION. This event is FREE & open to the public.About The Performance:
Duty-Free Paradise Performance (2020-2026) uses transmedia storytelling as a tool to visually create a dialogue to explore the issues around eco-tourism in Hawai‘i, where Asunción’s grandparents immigrated to in the 1920’s to work on the sugarcane plantations on Oahu, examining the many connections it has to biopolitics and militarism throughout American history.
This performance reflects upon the writings by the last monarch of Hawai‘i Queen “Lydia” Lili'uokalani’s wrote while imprisoned at Iolani Palace following the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by a Euro-American oligarchy, missionary leaders, and US military who wanted control of the Hawaiian government. In 1898, the United States illegally annexed the once-free Hawai‘i despite Queen Lili'uokalani’s letters and over 21,000 Native Hawaiians signed a petition to protest the annexation of the U.S. assertion of ownership without due process or just compensation. In the same year, following the Spanish-American War, the Treaty of Paris (1898) ended the period of Spanish colonization in the Philippines and granted possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States.
The performance explores the contradictions between perceptions and realities of island life as a paradise constructed through American pop culture, underwritten by militarism and biopolitics. As a Filipinx-American who grew up in Hawaiʻi, now living in Boston, Asunción offers an exposition of America's complicated history with Hawaiʻi. Through honoring Kānaka Maoli culture and the Filipinx diaspora, Asunción embodies characters that critique colonialism and imperialism with a compelling sense of ritualistic care.
About The Artist:
Lani Asunción explores the intricacies of identity and belonging with ritualized performance and public art that serve as acts of reclamation. In their work they seek to create public spaces where alternative ethics of care, community healing, and social solidarity can thrive. Asunción has had solo exhibitions at the Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts (2024), Real Art Ways (2022), Radial Gallery (2021), Brookline Arts Center (2020), and New Bedford Art Museum (2016). They are a recipient of the MAP Fund Grant (2024), Kala Fellowship Award (2023), Future Frequencies Fellowship from the Mass MoCA Studios (2022), and was awarded the 2021 Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant from New England Foundation for the Arts. Asunción received their MFA from the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut. They teach as visiting lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art & Design in the Fine Arts 3D, Sculpture Department teaching public art and performance. Asunción was the Curator & Public Art Manager of the 2024-2025 Un-monument initiative projects at Pao Arts Center (BCNC) in partnership with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture supported by the Mellon Foundation.
laniasuncion.com
IG: @lani.asuncion
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Event Venue
455 25th Street, Ogden, UT, United States, Utah 84401
Tickets
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