Sally Lundburg, b. 1971, Hilo, Hawaiʻi; lives and works in Paʻauilo, Hawaiʻi
Keith Tallett, b. 1965, Hilo, Hawaiʻi; lives and works in Paʻauilo, Hawaiʻi
Honolulu Biennial 2017 artists

Loving You is Surfing You
from the series Local Knowledge
2023
Archival inkjet print on habotai silk, enamel paint, powdered pigment, epoxy resin on wood panel
24 x 24 in
Unique variation


An ongoing series by Les Filter Feeders, Local Knowledge are mixed-media works that serve as alternative signage, providing warnings, invitations, and anecdotal observations for communities in transition. Les Filter Feeders plays with humor and irony, making use of misspelling, letter [mis]placements, and image/text juxtapositions to allude to hidden meanings. This series stems from the concept of local knowledge as a knowledge system that is dynamic, as people adapt to changes in their environment and absorb and assimilate ideas from a variety of sources. All communities possess local knowledge — rural and urban, settled and nomadic, original inhabitants and migrants.

LOVING YOU IS SURFING YOU is a nod to the late local comedian Rap Reiplinger’s humorous bit/poem of the same name, which was recorded on the album Poi Dog with Crabs (1992, Mountain Apple Company).

Keith Tallett is a mixed-media artist who was born and raised in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. He is a second-generation surfboard shaper and tattoo practitioner of traditional Polynesian patterns. The process of making art for him becomes a way of creating dialogue between his cultural knowledge and practices, and his investigations as a contemporary artist. Tallett has an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and a BA from University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. He has exhibited at such venues as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles, and Franklin Parrasch Gallery in New York. His professional experience includes lecturing at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo art department (2004–11), as well as being a founding member of AGGROculture, a Hawaiʻi-based art collective. Tallett was included in the 2011 Artists of Hawaii exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art, where he received the Jean Charlot Foundation Award for Excellence. He was also awarded a 2011 Cultural Apprenticeship Grant through the Folk Art Program at Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and was nationally recognized when he received a 2013 Joan Mitchell Foundation Sculptor and Painter Grant.

Sally Lundburg creates objects, paintings, installations, and videos that reflect on history, culture, place, and belonging. Natural disasters and the resulting rescue efforts are a source of inspiration for her work, as well as the structures, language, and tools of shelter and survival. She has shown in galleries and museums in Hawaiʻi and San Francisco, and in film festivals both nationally and internationally. She was included in the 2012 Biennial of Hawaiʻi Artists X at the Honolulu Museum of Art, where she recognized with the Ellen Choy Craig Award. She and her husband, Keith Tallett, were resident artists at Present Project, an interdisciplinary, interactive, public art project that invited artists from around the world to Kakaʻako, Oʻahu. Lundburg has a BFA in interdisciplinary studies from San Francisco Art Institute and is a founding member of AGGROculture, a Hawaiʻi-based art collective.

See also | Local Knowledge: Remember Me When You See This and Local Knowledge: Here is the Only Space Left


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