By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
On exhibit at East-West Center Gallery, 'Kapu sticks'
by Kawika Mahelona.
Mana converged
Spirit of native Hawaiian activism
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
takes concrete form in ‘Ho‘oku‘e’
contemporary art show
Star-BulletinWHEN outsiders began Christianizing and colonizing Hawaii, one of the first things they dismantled, says artist Herman Pi'ikea Clark, "was our art, our visual expression." Now, Hawaiian artists are still trying to recover what was lost. Clark is one of 20 contemporary native Hawaiian artists exhibiting works in a show entitled "Ho'oku'e" (Resistance), through June 6 at East-West Center Gallery.
The "Ho'oku'e" theme reflects native Hawaiian activism in its current incarnation -- resistance to two centuries of Western overlaying of indigenous language, religion, chant, dance, music and other cultural forms.
Speaking by phone from Norfolk Island, Clark said, "After a return to our language and dance, the last thing that's coming back in full force -- as shown in this show -- is our art; but not in the form of ki'i, or big temple images, which were relevant 200 or 300 years ago. What's important or relevant are different (modern) media, but there is the same sense of mana (spiritual power) that comes through."
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
"Ka'ai A Kaia'upe" by Ka'ili Chun.
The show's expressions are variously soft or strident, funny or poignant, simple or eloquent. Kawika Mahelona fashioned crossed kapu (sacred) sticks from steel rods, barbed wire, clear plastic and historic documents. Then there's Kimo Cashman's "Kapu" -- a playful composition of black tarp and plastic water bottles filled with water.In Hawaiian culture, bones or "iwi" signify life, mana and the core of one's being.
Hali'imale Andrade depicts iwi in her quietly elegant sculpture "Na 'Auma-kua" (The Family Gods). The work is a teepee-like structure made of handmade-paper shingles, housing a heap of paper pulp squished to look like vertebrae.
Maureen-Michele Ka'ilipaina Chun, 35, a University of Hawaii graduate student in ceramics departed from clay to sculpt a powerful statement, "Ka'ai A Kaia'upe" (Stroke of Kaia'upe). The work features a carved koa pololu (long spear) piercing the 50th star of an American flag whose stripes are burned with the words "Ka'ai A Kaia'upe." A legendary robber, Kaia'upe lured her victims into sex, then kicked them off a cliff at 'A'alaloa, Maui; she has come to symbolize treachery.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
"Ho'omau" by April Drexel.
Chun, a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and Princeton University in architecture, said the exhibit is "not necessarily reflecting, but responding to, this moment in time -- into the historicity of this moment."What I see is how the media have presented all the different sovereignty groups, and they have focused upon the differences and emphasized the divisiveness. In looking at this particular show and analogizing to that portrayal, I come from it from a different perspective: I see 20 different individuals coming together to make a singular statement."
Whether the medium is bronze, poha-ku (stone) or fiber, she sees the show as "our relation to our place, Hawaii."
Clark's large double canvas in reds, white and blues is anchored by the word "Waha" (mouth) -- on the forked-tongue theme.
A recent UH master's degree recipient, Clark is completing several art commissions on Norfolk Island, north of New Zealand. He sees a resurgence in native Hawaiian visual expression and predicts a strong art movement over the next two decades.
Clark organized Ka Maka O Ka Ihe (The Eye of the Spear), a group for undergraduate and graduate students and alumni of the UH art program. He also proposed the first UH course in Contemporary Native Hawaiian Visual Expression, which premieres next spring on the Manoa campus.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
"Na 'Aumakua" by Maile Andrade.
"We are bringing a visual identity that is indigenous to Hawaii," he said. "For the longest time that has been constructed by outsiders. It's the first time our own people are generating our own cultural perspective, our own identity. It's a little scary for us, but it can only be a good thing for us collectively ... It's important to the viability of our culture."Finally, April Hokulani Drexel's "Ho'omau" (Continue) is a 4-by-6-foot painting in purple acrylics, black sand, charcoal and graphite. She is a UH doctoral candidate whose dissertation is on contemporary native Hawaiian artists because, "I never had it (Hawaiian art) in high school. I was always looking at others' art, not Hawaiians' art ... I was told it was trivial."
She joined Cashman in organizing the "Ho'oku'e" exhibit because, "You bring 20 different artists together; the theme is the same, but there are different ways of expressing, different layerings of meaning, a kind of kaona (underlying, hidden significance)."
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Double canvas by Herman Clark.
The other artists are Sean Browne, Kauka de Silva, Bob Freitas, 'Imaikalani Kalahele, 'Alika McNicoll, Ka'ohu Seto, Chuck Kawai'olu Souza.Also, Kawai Aona-Ueoka, Malia Kane Kuahiwinui, Anne Kapulani Landgraf, Meleanna Aluli Meyer, Ipo Nihipali, Mele Visser and Lani Yamasaki.
They are making sense of their human condition as Hawaiians, their surroundings, the state of their culture, Clark said. The iwi are the same, the times are new.
"I see our role as not unlike the role of artisans in our previous traditional times," he said, "that is, making utilitarian objects sacred (and) being responsive to the needs confronting our people now. What is confronting us is a real strong political condition; so the works then have to respond to that ... Nevertheless, it's the same blood, our feet are on the same land, we're the same people. It's just very different now than 300 or 400 years ago, and our culture is evolving as a result of that."
Ho‘oku‘e art exhibit
When: 8 to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, through June 6
