Staged Tropics is a defiant encounter with the enduring US colonial visual narratives of Hawai'i. Panning across early photography sources from the Bishop Museum Archives, it examines the burgeoning role of romantic, colonial imagery in concealing unwanted occupation. These narratives are re-patterned, collaged, and cropped to regain focus on the illusion of benign US governance since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Bishop Museum and its archives are a primary witness to this history, having been established in 1889 to preserve Native Hawaiian cultural heritage in a shifting sociopolitical landscape.
The 2023-24 Center of Race and Gender Student Research Grant supported the development of this research and creative project.