Melissa Chimera

It’s here! The #HT25 Hawaii Triennial 2025 opens today, and so does “Hulihonua, Transformed Landscapes” at Foster Botanical Garden.

This public installation came together with the help of so many friends and conservationists—landscape designer Leland Miyano, architect Alika Romanchak, general contractor Tyler Devrell, Oahu DLNR Forestry Manager Marigold Zoll @marigoldsky, Native Ecosystem Services @whoistmarsh, @aliciabrimhall and my friends and hunters on Maui who collected these antlers (@mountainsoljah_01, Zadoc Brown, Henrik Lyons, Bryon Stevens, Carey Shewmaker). Mahalo to Foster Botanical Garden, the curatorial team and @hawaiicontemporary for your support!
—————————-

Melissa Chimera
Hulihonua, Transformed Landscapes
2025
Deer antlers, goat skulls, steel, wood, native vegetation and water

Born in Hawai‘i to Lebanese and Filipino ancestry, Melissa Chimera merges her roles as conservationist and mixed-media artist to explore species extinction, human migration, and globalization—three subjects that are often investigated together on a single canvas. Three decades of environmental education and land stewardship in the Pacific has inspired her artistic practice. This installation grapples with environmental catastrophes caused by empire and extraction through the story of native seeds, mulch, cow bones, deer and goat skulls and antlers. Her work references the impact of invasive hoofed animals brought to Hawaiʻi in 1778, which have disrupted native ecosystems and supported subsistence hunting in the present. The title of the work alludes to Haumea, Hawaiian goddess of earth and fertility, symbolizing radical renewal of the earth, while the display of water, seeds, and vegetation signifies nature’s cycle of creation. The translated text reads, “The land is chief, the man (or person) is the servant.” This work suggests the transformative potential for people and ‘āina and encourages viewers to reflect on how healing can emerge through reimagining our fractured human experience.