Scene: Hawaii’s HI Sk8 Art Show
all photos featured in the show. the above image of dana min was taken by Lila Lee.
It is November in Hawai’i which means the return of the annual HI Sk8 Art Show hosted by Kaiao Space.
This time it is a particularly special show because the guest curator is none other than Editor in Chief of Monster Children Magazine - Tony K. No, no, I mean Naz Kawakami. Who is Naz Kawakami really, you ask? The enigma that is the most functioning member of the Monster Children ship, steering us calmly towards whatever it is we are supposed to be doing at MC despite living in a completely different timezone. He is kind, generous, patient, smart and exceptional at what he does, both in writing and photography.
This time last year Naz showed me around his hometown in O’ahu, Hawai’i where I learnt a lot about Naz purely by seeing where he grew up. I got to meet his friends and hang out at the spots that were most special to him and eat all the fucked up good Hawaiian food. Something you might not know about Naz, is that despite his affinity for the ocean and nature and wide open spaces, he despises surfing. This dislike strikes quite a lot of people as unusual, particularly as Naz is indigenous to Hawai’i and everyone just assumes a native Hawaiian is obsessed with surfing from birth, but once you get to know him, it makes perfect sense.
When everyone else was surfing, he was skating. When everyone else was getting into drugs, he was learning how to soak his film in a dark room. When everyone else saw the keep out sign, Naz was plotting how to get in. The HI Sk8 Art Show represents a historical collision of Hawaii’s rich skateboarding and art cultures both now and of decades past, within and without Hawai’i. It represents Naz and his friends who may exist as a minority to some, but an inspiration nevertheless. The kind of people that just said fuck it, and did it anyway. The people we love and admire.
The HI Sk8 Art Show features photographic, sculpted, found/recovered/disected, and illustrated work by Kainoa Gruspe, Jordan Cheng, Spike Jonze, and Lila Lee, among many others. The show will run from November 15th until November 23rd, and accompanies the annual HI Sk8 Film Festival, taking place at the Doris Duke Theater on November 30th. Opening reception for the HI Sk8 Art Show at Kaiao Space, November 15th, 6-9pm. If you’re in Hawai’i, you’d be fucking stupid to miss it. But if you can’t make it, at least read this interview below, and see the ways in which Naz is hilarious, always thinking of his community and one of a fucking kind.
Hello Naz. Wow, this is the first time I’ve seriously spoken to you. I’m actually really nervous. Are you?
I am a nervous person. I exist with nervousness. It is of my essence, and of my physical being. One could say that I am composed of nerves. One could say the same for you, and for all humans. The only things that I can think of that aren’t nervous are deep-sea beings. Amorphous blobs, jellyfish, etc. and I’d never want to be them. They live down in the cold dark aquatic nightmare hellscape. Being nervous makes us human, but feeling nervous makes us human. You know what I mean? Yeah, you do.
Are you nervous about this show?
As I put forth above, I am a biological being and consist of physical and metaphorical nerves, but they are usually not pointed at any one thing at any one time. The nerves of my foot are feeling the hole in my socks, the nerves of my heart are feeling the ache of the burger I just ate, and the nerves of my soul are pointed more toward the sky and westward.
As a guest curator, what do you think you bring to the table?
I suppose it depends on the table and how long I’ll be there. If we are talking the desk at Kaiao Space, I’ll bring art pieces, phone, wallet, keys, usually an iced coffee, a notebook, sunglasses, shoes, underpants - again, it really depends on the table. If you wanna know what I order for the table, you’ll have to check my Hinge profile, but you’ll have to un-ban it first.
the above image was taken by john oliveira.
What exactly do art and skateboarding mean to you?
What exactly do art and skateboarding mean to me? Well, I’m not exactly sure. What exactly do they mean to anybody? No, I’m asking you. I have literally no idea what those words mean. I had never heard them before I was asked to guest curate this art show. So yeah, if you are asking me what I bring to this particular, metaphorical table, I bring nothing at all: a clean slate by way of having absolutely no knowledge or understanding of what ‘art’ or ‘skateboarding’ mean. I am as new to it as a newborn baby chick pecking its way into the good Lord’s light, and that is called perspective. Fresh, new, avant garde. Something that all of you art critics and skateboarding critics wouldn’t understand, up there on your ivory towers, thinking you’re better than me. You’re no better than me! How can you be better than me when I curate you?
What is skateboarding? Seriously.
From what I have been told, it is something that children do and then they stop, and then they begin to do it again when they enter their early twenties, and then when they enter their thirties, they do it only on weekends and in the early morning hours and on SLAP message boards. Something to do with terrain, a vehicle, some noise, some sweat, a wheel or four, and enormous, enormous amounts of shame.
Tell me about your friends, Travis and Alec, who are also apart of this show?
Travis Hancock is the creator and founder of the HI Sk8 Film Festival and Art Show, and Alec Singer is the producer and co-curator of both. Travis and Alec are two creative leaders in the worlds of skate and art in Honolulu and greater Hawaii, and are the ones who have allowed me to be involved with their beloved and vital project. Travis’ name in my phone is ‘Handsome Hancock’. Alec’s name in my phone is ‘bitch ass lover boy’. They are both the better parts of Hawaii as far as I can tell and I am very happy to have them as friends and Hawaii is lucky to have them as skate and art advocates.
How would you describe the skateboarding scene in Hawaii?
I wouldn’t. (or, for a realistic depiction of skateboarding in Hawaii, visit @shittykids_ )
How would you describe the art scene in Hawaii?
I’ll let you know once those cool rich fuckers let me in.
the above photo was taken by zach Puetz.
What is the purpose of the HI Sk8 Art Show?
The HI Sk8 Art Show is an accompaniment to the annual HI Sk8 Film Festival which takes place at the Honolulu Museum of Art. The film festival is an opportunity for the hard working skate filmmakers of Hawaii and the greater Pacific to showcase the films that they have been working on for the year. The art show is an opportunity to reflect on and explore the other ways in which skateboarding and art translate to each other, challenge each other, come together and diverge. It also highlights the diversity of works being created by, for, and about skateboarding as it exists as a subculture to the already-complex and unique Hawaiian culture. The pieces featured are new, renewed, abstract, and historical.
What drew you personally towards skate over let’s say, surfing?
My brother quite liked surfing and was very good at it. My sister and my dad also surfed. My mom loved the beach. I said fuck all that, give me the concrete. Unfortunately for me, my brother and father also skate, and are better than me at it. Plus you don’t get sand in your crotch when you go skateboarding, nor do you have to listen to some dumb white guy with dreads named Ocean tell you all about his hemp like I imagine you all do in ‘the line up’ or whatever.
What can be said about being a minority (skater) within a minority (native Hawaiian) that this art show won’t already tell us?
This is an excellent question that addresses two important parts of me. It is true, as a native Hawaiian skateboarder, I exist as a subculture within a kind of subculture of the western world. I believe that the main distinction between the two is that skateboarding has not yet been illegally annexed by haole businessmen with the support of US marines.
What can we expect to see at the HI Sk8 Art Show?
Art, skateboarding, photography, me, Alec, my mom, probably. Some illustrations by Mark Gonz if he ever answers my emails and some photography by Lila Lee, Silent John, Stinson, Zach, and Spike Jonze if he ever answers my emails. You can also expect to see a giant-ass painting by Kainoa Gruspe and local savant, Steven Do. Also, video games. Travis Hancock’s gorgeous face. My sweaty palms. Beers. Chad being mad at me for some reason. Really good photography. Arto will probably come. Steven probably won’t.
the above image was taken by steven stinson.
If you could tell your thirteen year old self that definitely didn’t think he would amount to anything that you would be putting on a skate art show, what do you think he would say?
I think that he would say that this is expected. I think that he would also say that I’m doing this much later than he would have appreciated, and that I should have done this before the age of twenty. He would go on to ask why I am not rich and famous and married to Lucy Liu, and why I can’t kickflip good. Then I’d say fuck you kid you don’t know how good you have it. Then he’d probably flick a cigarette at me and skate off like a punk ass bitch.
Can you please send me some Kalua, I fucking miss Hawaii.
Meet me behind the dumpsters at Yama’s Fish Market in twenty minutes.