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CURRENT

CHOKE, by Dane Nakama

October 31 - December 13, 2026

Opening Reception 3-6pm, November 7, 2026

The window shattered first. Kikaida had been trying to transform for hours. Outside, the trees continued to break. The forecast showed another storm behind this one. Then another. And another. I went looking for batteries. I filled up the bathtub. Before the wind got too loud, we could hear the planes. Uncle said they were moving the ships out of Pearl Harbor again. Aunty asked if it was because of the storm. The flute kept playing. Kikaida held his head between his hands, squeezing, like he was trying to make it pop. Poor thing Kikaida, poor us. The flute kept playing. By then the house was full. Choke slippers by the door. The wind stealing most of them away. An explosion in the episode seemed to shut off the TV. The curtains lifted. Rain fell across his red and blue face. Kikaida! Tasukete! TASUKETE! 

Set against fears of increasingly destructive hurricanes in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, CHOKE is an exhibition of new works by Dane Nakama. The show unfolds between an approaching storm and a childhood television episode, where monsters enter the house and rescue becomes difficult to distinguish from threat. Kikaida, an android superhero from the 1970s Japanese television series beloved in Hawaiʻi, was built to defend humans against destructive machines. His creator, Dr. Komyoji, left his conscience circuit unfinished. Intended to give him a human heart and the ability to choose right from wrong, the incomplete circuit leaves him vulnerable to the controlling sound of the evil Professor Gil’s flute. Built to protect humans yet susceptible to commands that turn him against them, Kikaida reflects the hopes invested in artificial intelligence: a machine that promises to help us, but can accelerate our destruction. In Hawaiʻi, military presence is woven into everyday life: aircraft overhead, army vehicles on the freeway, uniforms at the market. What does it mean to live beside machinery meant to defend you, knowing it may also make your home a target? In Hawaiʻi Pidgin, “choke” means many, or a lot: choke fish, choke storms, choke military, choke problems. The word carries the abundance of island life alongside a tightening throat. The future reaches us through forecasts and warnings. We listen for what is coming, trying to tell one sound from another. Dane Hiʻipoi Nakama (b. 1999, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi) is a Japanese–Uchinanchu ceramicist, painter, and educator whose work bridges local aesthetics, folklore, and decolonial critique. Raised on Oʻahu, they are now based between Hawaiʻi and Los Angeles. Their interdisciplinary practice is both highly referential and disarmingly tender, addressing settler colonialism, ancestral memory, and cultural hybridity. They hold a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA in ceramics from UCLA.

Regular Gallery Hours Friday and Saturday 11am-4pm
Email hafa@pileleprojects.org