Many Hawaiʻi residents may remember Shirokiya, the old food court and department store at Ala Moana Center. It’s been years since the beloved theme park village closed its doors.
Now, thanks to the work of artist and animator Nick Chang, residents have a chance to take a virtual walk down memory lane.
Chang’s 3D animations explore old Hawaiʻi hot spots like Shirokiya and Kahala Mall (and its notoriously uncanny bathrooms). He combines the palpable nostalgia already tied to these local favorites and combines them with graphics reminiscent of video games from the Y2K era.
After going viral on Instagram, now the artist is developing his own video game, codenamed “Kona Winds: Trouble in Paradise.”
HPR spoke with Chang to learn more about how he found his vision as an artist.
Interview Highlights
On creating art in an age of AI and his inspirations
NICK CHANG: When I moved back to Hawaiʻi from Seattle about a year ago, I had a meeting with somebody who sells art professionally. And she took a look at what I did, and she said it's very impressive that you're able to do this in a 3D program, but AI can do this in seconds. … And I decided, OK, if photorealistic art isn't sellable or workable … then what else is there? So I started digging back into the sort of styles that I grew up with. And that sort of retro style was very popular on Instagram at the time, too … so I just decided I'm gonna make Ala Moana in that exact same style as that, and it got more traction, it got more interest organically through Instagram than my other stuff had.
On his nostalgia for Hawaiʻi in the late 2000s
CHANG: I've always said Hawaiʻi's like nowhere else in the world, but Hawaiʻi during the recession especially. It was this time, you know, we talk about liminal spaces … and it's this temporary transitory state, and that's kind of what the recession was, too. The recession was really the thing that I think kicked Hawaiʻi into a different gear. That's when we realized that our economy, you know, we can't lean on tourism forever, we can't depend on people's discretionary luxury incomes to fund our economy.
And so that's why now there's been such a push, I've noticed, to develop the workforce into more of an advanced economy, more of a trying to create a native tech base and bring film and entertainment back here. And 2008, 2009 as a time period, just in my life, that's when I really became aware of the world around me, and that's that's just why it's special to me, and that's why I think I feel like I'd be able to capture that time period very authentically.
On his medium and his values as an internet-based artist
CHANG: I'm a huge believer in open source. I was on the internet from a pretty early age, and I remember when most things were free. And that was the promise of the internet, is that it was an open platform for people who cared and were passionate about projects and about making things, and they would do so without really a profit motive. They would just create things and be connected with other people who wanted to create, and it's kind of a shame to see how monetized the world has, the internet online world, has become. And that's why I came to support Blender. At first, it was just, ‘It's free, and it's there, and it's available,’ but I've really come to appreciate what it stands for, of remaining free.
More of Nick Chang's work can be found on his Instagram page.
This story aired on The Conversation on June 24, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
