Osorio

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.

Recovering Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) relationality and belonging in the land, memory, and body of Native Hawai’i Hawaiian “aloha ʻāina” is often described in Western political terms—nationalism, nationhood, even patriotism. In Remembering Our Intimacies, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio centers in on the personal and embodied articulations of aloha ʻāina to detangle it from the effects of colonialism and occupation. Working at the intersections of Hawaiian knowledge, Indigenous queer theory, and Indigenous feminisms, Remembering Our Intimacies seeks to recuperate Native Hawaiian concepts and ethics around relationality, desire, and belonging firmly grounded in the land, memory, and the body of Native Hawai’i. Remembering Our Intimacies argues for the methodology of (re)membering Indigenous forms of intimacies. It does so through the metaphor of a ‘upena—a net of intimacies that incorporates the variety of relationships that exist for Kānaka Maoli. It uses a close reading of the moʻolelo (history and literature) of Hiʻiakaikapoliopele to provide context and interpretation of Hawaiian intimacy and desire by describing its significance in Kānaka Maoli epistemology and why this matters profoundly for Hawaiian (and other Indigenous) futures. Offering a new approach to understanding one of Native Hawaiians’ most significant values, Remembering Our Intimacies reveals the relationships between the policing of Indigenous bodies, intimacies, and desires; the disembodiment of Indigenous modes of governance; and the ongoing and ensuing displacement of Indigenous people.

Pepón Osorio is an internationally recognized artist whose richly detailed installations challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions that shape our view of social institutions and human relationships. In this book, Jennifer A. González shows that although Osorio draws on his Puerto Rican background and the immigrant experience for inspiration, his artistic statements bridge geographical barriers and class divides.

Documented here is Los Angeles-based artist Ruby Osorio's creation A Story of a Girl (Who Awakes Far, Far Away)--an enchanting magical environment based on her unique drawings and works on paper. This series of gouache paintings incorporates thread and ink and presents this young artist's exploration into female identity and more tellingly, the construction of that identity through what is becoming a hallmark of her hand--whimsy with a punch. In this new series of painterly drawings, Osorio pushes the range of her work in scale, medium and content; thus transforming the gallery into a delicate room that presents a "feminine aesthetic" through the use of cartoon-like drawings of women, girls, animals, objects and natural landscapes (some directly on the wall) that grow from tiny thumbnail sketches to large mural-sized narratives. The images within and the design of this book and the limited edition reference the delicacy and preciousness of Osorio's hand and concepts.