You May Be Loved

Taking the song ‘Aloha ʻOe’ as a departure point, Brandon Ng’s You May Be Loved explores the complexities of this composition regarding power, nostalgia, and narrative. Originally composed as a love song by Lili‘uokalani before she became queen, it later became known as a lament of farewell. Now one of the most recognizable pieces of music of Hawaiʻi, many different versions have modified the form and function of the composition. Ng leans into the current dialectical nature of ‘Aloha ʻOe’ to examine how the spaces within/between love and farewell can function simultaneously through the lens of Hawaiʻi's history and culture.

You May Be Loved references ‘Aloha ʻOe’ via varying song interpretations and by honoring the elegant poetics of the Queen's arrangement. Through a process of lyrical distillation, Ng samples differing moments within the composition and couples them with cultural imagery that rubs up against collective notions of Hawaiʻi-ness. The sonic and material gestures offer connective conceptions of hybridity and the physicality of the land. As the work meanders the grounds of Foster Botanical Gardens, visitors experience the activation of the space through the emotive tenets of Queen Lili'uokalani's Aloha ʻOe. This movement refers to the song's origin story, where Lili'uokalani ruminated on the composition as she returned from Maunawili to her home in Honolulu.