STATEMENT

Agents of Change is a series of mixed media and oil paintings on linen. The work prompts questions about Hawaiian species extinction, globalization and our human role in these processes. Living and non-living catalysts—earth movers and harvesters, fishing nets, invasive species, jet planes and the Kahului airport—are the subjects of cause and effect. Hunters collected bones of invasive mammals on Maui, Lana‘i and Moloka‘i in the untitled installation. Axis deer, mouflon sheep, cows, pigs and goats are a devastating force in Hawaiian native ecosystems.

Can we ever conceive the swift changes which sometimes hinge on seemingly innocuous and discrete events? An 18th century sailing ship brings the first stowaway of a prolific predator, the European rat. A commercial sugar field is harvested for the first time on Lana‘i in 1802. An Asian axis deer is gifted to Kamehameha V in 1868. We set into motion profound, cascading transformations with little understanding of their consequences.