About

Lisa Asagi is a conceptual artist and writer. They are a third-generation Japanese diasporic born, raised, and based in Hawaiʻi. They live and work in the coastal neighborhood of Kalihi Kai, a place layered by tides and weathered with stories. This proximity, this felt relationship between land and sea, consistently reshapes Lisa’s experience of life and guides their art.

Lisa’s work is an intermingling of deep time, multispecies ethnography, ecology, diaspora, embodied memory, emergent theory, queer ecosystems, and intimate acts of kindness between strangers.

Recurring subjects include Japanese poetic diaries, interspecies communication, atomic history, and wildlife protection movements.

Their practice incorporates organic materials, story, ritual, and elements of social engagement.

Lisa’s formal training in poetry, and experimental writing informs their approach to conceptual art in unexpected ways. This proclivity has sparked collaborations with artists working in live art, video, film, dance, textile, and installation.

This interdisciplinary approach has grown into projects focused on ways art and story live in community. These projects have included librettos for a dance company, a food hub for a Kalihi wellness non-profit, the creation of a SNAP-EBT access program for farmers markets, and the design and implementation of a simultaneous dining fundraising experience for a local meals-on-wheels program.