Pōʻele Wai
Directed by Tiare Ribeaux
Pōʻele Wai follows a female weaver on O'ahu, who while navigating between survival and their connection to the ‘āina (land), experiences a transformation when they find out their drinking water has been poisoned by petroleum leaking into the island’s watersheds at Kapūkakī.
Music Video for "To Accept" by Tyler Holmes
Directed by Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater; Written by Tiare Ribeaux
In the indeterminate future, a non-binary human tinkers with material experiments while seeking to create another form of life that mirrors their own. A foreboding feeling of entrapment and isolation in the digital and physical realms pervade as a new creature is spawned, bordering the real and the imaginary.
Ulu (ʻŌlelo Hawai'i): “to grow, increase, spread, to protect, to rise”; Kupu: “sprout, offspring, germinate” or a “spirit or supernatural being”.
Through video that mixes parallel visual narratives, Ulu Kupu follows a “Labor Hula”, a performance of harvesting plants/materials from the 'āina (land): hala which is used for weaving; wauke, which is used to create kapa or tapa, a textile; and hau which is also used as a textile or decorative fiber. This dance with the materials of the land is further expanded through the performance of a dancer, wearing the materials on their body and dancing in a wahi pana (sacred place) as well as in a grove of hau trees. The labor hula is continued in a river, where the materials are cleaned and processed. It commences almost ritualistically, as if the movements were inherited within the performers, each of whom specializes in these crafts. The actions are meant to convey an offering, and akua (elemental deities) are shown watching these actions throughout the film. The film aims to convey that all of this ike (knowledge) is in fact inherited by all Kānaka, and that all it takes is a remembering. Through the transference of ike through the medium of film, a remembrance is offered to the viewer.
Cyanovisions
Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater
Cyanovisions is a short film that blurs the lines of science fact and fiction. It doubles as a multimedia project spanning the genres of video, installation, dance, bioart, environmental science, and fashion - involving diverse Bay Area artists from the queer community and beyond. Cyanovisions examines climate change, harmful algae blooms of cyanobacteria, and biotechnology; and hopes to redefine our perspectives on our impact of the ecosystems we inhabit, other species, and imagine more symbiotic futures.
Saturn Rising is a short art + music + dance film directed by Tiare Ribeaux + Jody Stillwater, and made in collaboration with Saturn Rising and other artists who identify as QTPOC - collectively re-imagining our relationship to the Bay Area, and what we consider family, our bodies, and the environment. Transgenesis aims to present a metaphor for the digestion of marginalized people through a toxic societal system, following a transformational arc of healing and rising up from both environmental and systemic racism to find collective empowerment and transcendence.
Pele and Plastiglomerate meditates on the materiality of lava, the spirituality embedded within, and potentialities for new material rituals. Presented as a 2-channel video, it repositions satellite data next to lava flows to re-envision spiritual practices and healing in these continuously transformed landscapes of the island. Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiians) see Pelehonuamea, a volcanic deity and goddess, as their living elemental progenitor. She is associated with the volcano Kilauea and as a living entity in Halema’uma’u crater, including the land and lava rocks that extend from Kilauea’s reach. Prior to western contact, offerings, chants, prayers, and a deep reverence for Pele were needed to approach the crater. As an extension of techno-colonialism of Hawai’i Island, drones and satellite monitoring through LIDAR and InSAR technology, positioned above the crater, actively shoot lasers on the land to detect surface deformations at Kilauea’s summit. This technological monitoring can be seen as a continual invasion of the island, and the Kanaka Maoli’s spiritual realm. As this technology attempts to predict Pele's movements, as a force of nature, she can never be fully predicted. Chants honoring Pelehonuamea are combined with LIDAR and aerial drone footage, juxtaposing these two belief systems.
Soundwave ((7)) Biennial Performance Reel, 2016
Artistic Director and Curator - Tiare Ribeaux
Selected highlights from the Soundwave ((7)) Biennial Architecture. The Biennial ran from July 1st - September 3rd, 2016. Soundwave is San Francisco’s acclaimed biennial of innovative sound, art and music presented as a citywide summer-long, multi-venue experiential event series. Shown here are selected short excerpts of performances over 10 venues including the De Young Museum, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Fort Mason Center, and others. Soundwave ((7)) Architecture explored sonic connections to our built environment which shape our lives as humans. This season commissioned new performances and works from over 50 dynamic artists to examine the rapidly transforming landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area and the world-at-large while considering the physical and phenomenological aspects of constructing, designing and inhabiting our built environments through sound.
Soundwave Biennial on KQED Arts, 2016
Video Essay and article by KQED Arts of the Grace Cathedral Performances curated by Tiare Ribeaux, part of the Soundwave ((7)) Biennial, 2016. The theme of Soundwave ((7)) Architecture, was to commission works that explored the connections to our physical environment and how they shape our lives. For its first two performances at the acoustically gorgeous, almost century-old French cathedral, the artists were tasked with creating performances that both exploited the Grace Cathedral's structure and explored different themes. In the July 29 concert, Sounding Bodies: Embodied Architectures, artists were tasked with demonstrating the different ways bodies could be used as vessels for sound. For the second concert on August 5, Invisible Fortress, another four artists explored the concept of buildings and issues facing the communities that inhabit them.
Don't Panic (2014)
Tiare Ribeaux and Payam Imani
This sci-fi fashion film highlighted the "Don't Panic" Jumpsuit line co-designed and co-directed in collaboration with Payam Imani. The narrative is based on a premise where the a near future bio-cyborg is trying to find her origin and creator and only is given clues through different messages with the symbol "Payam" while roaming around Tokyo. In an Alice and Wonderland fashion, the female cyborg takes these clues as messages that will lead her to her origin, only to collapse and reawaken with a different jumpsuit and a new mission of self-discovery. This was filmed during Fashion Week (Spring) 2014 in various locations in Tokyo, Japan.
Performance and Exhibition Reel, B4BEL4B Gallery (2014 - 2018)
Tiare Ribeaux founded B4BEL4B in 2014 as an artist-run gallery for multidisciplinary art and performance with an emphasis on trans-disciplinary works, diversity, social engagement and network culture. Our arts program prioritizes critically underrepresented groups in technology and media art spaces. We strive to support radically-inclusive ideologies, critical dialogue, and seek to engage divergent communities to encourage new conversations and ideas through a rotating calendar of exhibitions, events, and workshops.
Glimpses of a Revolution (2014)
Filmed and edited a short artistic documentary in and around Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. Meditative, celebratory, and haunting glimpses into the "January 25th Revolution" that took place in and around Tahrir Square before and after the fall of Hosni Mubarak which sparked the Arab Spring. It was filmed between January 25 2011 - February 30th 2011. Lost in translation but completely immersed in the energy of this time, this footage attempts to portray the most poignant moments within the square as it was experienced and give viewers a more intimate perspective of the revolution, as well as the roles that our digital media (smartphones, social media) had in capturing this world event and organizing those who participated.
This film was screened at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco in July, 2014.
Emergent Tributaries, American Arts Incubator Fellowship, 2018
Tiare Ribeaux was the American Arts Incubator artist for Kyiv, Ukraine in partnership with IZOLYATSIA Platform for Cultural Initiatives over the month of March, 2018. She led new media workshops and projects with over 30 Ukrainian artists focusing on cultural identity and environment, which culminated in the showcase and exhibition Emergent Tributaries at IZOLYATSIA from March 29 - April 12, 2018. American Arts Incubator is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by ZERO1. The incubator in Ukraine was produced in collaboration with U.S. Embassy Kyiv and IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives.