Kanaka Ӧiwi
Born 1962, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawai‘i
Lives and works in Honolulu
 

Kaili Chun is a Kanaka Öiwi artist who has inherited a strong sense of love and responsibility towards the ancestral land in which she lives. Honolulu’s natural beauty has been heavily affected by development, agriculture, aquaculture, militarism and tourism; Chun’s artistic practice responds to this through sculpture and large-scale installations that are often site-specific and involve community in creative dialogues on the significance of healthy land and waters.

Uwē ka lani, Ola ka honua (When the heavens weep the earth lives) comprises over 300 stainless steel cables that imagine rain caught by slanting sunlight. Physically connecting the heavens to the earth, each strand holds a capsule of water collected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants from around Australia. Chun acknowledges and engages with the Traditional Owners of the lands on which her works are created to establish conversations around indigenous knowledge and stewardship of land, sea and sky.