Lani Asunción: SONG/LAND/SEA, WAI Water Warning

SONG/LAND/SEA by interdisciplinary artist Lani Asunción is a public art installation and performance series that responds to the unequal impacts of climate change and global warming on Boston’s own coastline. Engaging with environmental racism as well as reminding us of ways of collective and resilient survivance, SONG/LAND/SEA serves as a warning of environmental change that echoes amidst the accelerating climate crisis.

To explore these issues, Asunción created a two-part installation: WAI Water Clock, a free-standing sculpture made of cement, brass, sailors’ rope, and steel, and Binakol Blessing Banners + Flags, a series of digital images developed by the artist and printed onto 4 large-scale fabric flags and twelve 15-foot tall vinyl banners. 

Connecting these works is the central concept of WAI, which translates to ‘water’ in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiʻian language). Foundational to Hawaiian culture, wai sits at the root of many words associated with value and importance, such as waiwai, which means both ‘wealth’ and ‘life force.’ Asunción calls our attention to wai as a warning, a healing blessing, and as a call to action toward the changes brought by the climate crisis. 

WAI Water Clock is an 8-foot tall sculpture featuring a suspended cement vessel, brass bell, sailors’ rope, and an etched brass bowl. This design echoes water clocks, a time-keeping technology used by humans for thousands of years to measure time based on the flow and filling of water within a specific-sized vessel. At its center, the vessel in WAI Water Clock cradles a nautical bell engraved with the word wai, forming a monumental water drop—a symbol of lamentation for the futures at stake and of Boston’s coastline returning to the sea.