Artwork copyright Lehuauakea. Photo courtesy of the artist, by Karl Davis, 2022.
Guided By Our Stars (We Were Never Lost), 2021
Lehuauakea
American Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) (born 1996)
Location: Walla Walla Community College, Walla Walla
About the Artwork
Guided By Our Stars (We Were Never Lost) by Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli / Native Hawaiian) is inspired by the Native Hawaiians who are using ancestral knowledge and bringing it back into our modern world. Lehuauakea notes "using these star lines to navigate our canoes across the Pacific, our ancestors were guided by their ancestors light years away — no compasses or modern scientific instruments needed. Today, there is a resurgence of Polynesian navigation." This artwork is part of a curated collection by Renee Adams in March 2023 for a new Science & Technology Building at Walla Walla Community College, in Southeastern Washington. The collection brings together artists who combine art and science. They use scientific approaches such as observation and experimentation, precise measurements and calculations. A desire to learn more about our world and share that knowledge is at the heart of both scientific and creative pursuits.
This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Walla Walla Community College.
About the Artist
Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli / Native Hawaiian) creates craft-based art that includes large-scale sculptures, hybrid installations, traditional canvas paintings, and Native Hawaiian craftwork. In their own words, "I aim to address subjects of mixed identity and cultural erasure, Indigenous resilience, and ecological decline through a contemporary Hawaiian lens." Lehua breathes new life into the labor-intensive traditions of making of 'ohe kāpala (carved bamboo stamps), kapa cloth, and natural pigments. Kapa is the traditional Native Hawaiian barkcloth, a non-woven textile made from the bark of specific trees.Lehuauakea is a māhū mixed-Native Hawaiian artist from Pāpa'ikou on Moku O Keawe, the Big Island of Hawai'i. They earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting with a minor in Art + Ecology at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon.
_edited.jpg)
_edited2.jpg)
Translate