Bloodless

BLOODLESS is a performance series about what lead up to the overtaking of the Hawaiian monarchy during the coup of 1893, which because of Queen Lili'uokalani cooperation was considered a bloodless war. When the Queen was forced to stepped down from power, she was put under house arrest and detained at the Iolani Palace. To allow the American plantation planters in partner with Sanford Ballard Dole, family member of James Dole founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company [currently known as Dole Food Company], established a new provincial government with Stanford Dole as president. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii. 300 U.S. Marines on the USS Boston were called to Hawaii, allegedly to protect American lives. Stevens was associated with the Committee of Safety, a 13-member group of the Annexation Club. This event paved the way for the annexation of Hawai’i by the United States six years later in 1898; ‘this extended U.S. territory into the Pacific and highlighted result[ing] from economic integration and the rise of the United States as a Pacific power.’

In this performance the hibiscus plant is a proxy for the land of Hawai'i, the loss, the pain and betrayal that Queen Lili'uokalani must have experienced. As the plant is uprooted, dismantled, and beaten; it is brutally torn apart and left bare and vulnerable. Off stage it is replanted and grows back all it’s leaves and flowers, resilient and thriving.

The song played during the performance Aloha O'e (Farewell to Thee) [original version] is slowly deconstructed, each time it is repeated is gradually played on a ukulele made to go out of tune each loop played through a doom amp. There is a jolting sense of loss as the beautiful song is detuned, each note falling out of line of the last one played. This is one of the most famous songs associated with Hawai'i composed by Queen Lili’uokalani published in 1884, written in 1878 when she was incarcerated at Iolani Palace. Which is now commonly sung as a song of goodbye.

This series of private performance videos were made during an artist residency in May of 2012 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Troy, NY in the former Woodside Church Chapel.