Dole House | Jamaica Plain, MA

Duty-Free Paradise (DFP) | Dole House project focuses on the Dole House located in Jamaica Plain, MA. The project Duty-Free Paradise (2020-23) uses transmedia storytelling as a tool to visually create a dialogue to explore the issues around eco-tourism, industrialization, and militarization in the Pacific that plays on the tensions of a lived and imagined Hawai’i where Asuncion’s grandparents immigrated to from the Philippines in the 1920’s to work on the sugarcane plantations in Kahuku, HI on the island of Oahu. In research on plantations in Hawaii and Boston’s fruit trade industry Asuncion found profound paralleled connections between the Pacific and New England shared histories.

Duty-Free Paradise plays on the tensions between lived and imagined Hawai’i. Through the lens of tourism, around which the Islands’ economy heavily circulates, this work explores the contradictions between perceptions and realities of island life as a paradise constructed through American pop culture, underwritten by militarism and biopolitics.

As a Filipinx-American who grew up in Hawai’i, now living in Boston, Asunción offers an exposition of Boston’s complicated history with Hawai’i. Through honoring Kānaka Maoli culture  and Filipinx diaspora, they embody characters that critique colonialism and imperialism with a compelling sense of ritualistic care.

The Dole House project aims to decolonize current narratives of James D. Dole who is credited and uplifted with establishing the pineapple industry in Hawai’i and instead highlights how the Dole family played a key role in the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani of the Hawaiian monarchy in the coup of 1893. After which a provincial government was established under Sanford Ballard Dole (James Dole's cousin) appointed governor, prior to Hawaii’s formal annexation into the U.S as the 50th state in 1959. Shortly after James Dole was given land by his cousin to farm pineapple plantations throughout the islands. This project was started in 2020 a few blocks from the childhood home of James Dole, designated as a historical landmark by The Bostonian Society, in Jamaica Plain, MA where he studied business at Harvard University and propagated pineapples at Bussey Institute now know as the Arnold Arboretum. Near the former studio of Asuncion of four years where they did installation and public performances the most recent at 10b project space with Forbes Graham (April 27-May 8, 2022) in response to these histories and their relation to Asuncion’s ancestral and lived experiences. This work extends to ritual performance work done at the The First Church of Jamaica Plain a historic church where Rev. Charles Fletcher Dole served for forty years, both he and James Dole are buried at Makawao Cemetery in Maui, Hawai’i.

Asuncion is creating connections between Hawaii and Boston's past and current American histories and examining how these narratives are being told and communicated by reframing them through digital media tools like video, augmented reality, installation, and public performances.

A work in progress: Developing equitable spaces for artistry to flourish in Boston by Reporter Taylor Blackley | The Scope Boston | 05.09.22 [Read full story here]

Alpha 60 | Augmented Reality Exhibition at Boston Cyberarts, curated by Michael Lewy (May 22 - September 30, 2022)

An augmented reality (AR) exhibition of 19 artists works located throughout the emerald necklace of Boston, and surrounding the area. The Golden Token AR performance and pixilated vector pineapple animation is located at the historic Dole House. Visit and view the AR project while it is on exhibition showcased by Boston Cyberarts in Jamaica Plain, MA supported by Hoverlay.