Melissa Chimera

This work is a reflection on the artist’s complicated lineage as the descendant of Filipino and Lebanese immigrants in Hawai‘i. Here, Chimera stitches silk printed photographs of her wedding day portrait among immigrant field laborers who were brought to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i for commercial interests by American foreign entities. Filipino field workers were among many immigrant groups who not only gained economically for themselves and their descendants, but also aided in the transformation of Hawai‘i from a subsistence-based sovereign nation into a cash-crop economy. The layered imagery and patterning examine the social, economic and environmental consequences of the privatization of land and wealth, the building of empires and the troubled land-use legacy we are faced with here in Hawai‘i.