Project 10
What Happened to Hawaiʻi expanded familial narratives into wider regional histories. Beginning from my paternal grandfather’s migration to the United States as a sugar plantation laborer, the project exposed the imperial and colonial histories existing in the Hawaiian islands. Expressed through a collection of 50 postcards and supporting publications, it traced how power and resource extraction had passed from sugar to pineapple, and pineapple to place—inviting the viewer to enter the archive of Hawaiʻi’s past in the form of colonial fantasy, while calling attention to the powers which continue to shape the islands today.