Local Color
Sunday, April 1, 2001
Don't ask why, but pigs are the favored beasts in the Wo/man and Beast exhibit at the Academy Art Center at Linekona. No offense, men,
but there’s a lot of
oinking going onJodi Endicott's "Pigs on White" gaze lovingly at each other in a diptych on the wall while "The Boars," a pair of steel mesh-and-concrete pigs, do the same on the floor. Endicott isn't saying men are pigs. She likes pigs - and other animals, too. She has a pair of bronze cats in the show also.
The face of a wild boar appears in Maile Yawata's mixed-media collage that incorporates a portrait of her teen-age son, who had offered himself as a model in lieu of a real Christmas present. Her 17-year-old seldom ventures into her studio and so far has shown no interest in seeing his own portraits. "It's hard to see how other people see you, especially if it's by your mother, who's so OLD when you are so YOUNG," says the understanding mom, who appears as a bird nagging her son in another drawing.
Ceramist Rochelle Lum offers up two domesticated pigs: A sweet piglet pleading for food ("I Want More"), another wrapped around a woman's neck ("Piggyback").
One wonders what would be the reccurring image if the show had kept one of its earlier titles, "Wild Weenies"?
Cora Yee thought that was the title and went for "crazy, funny things" in her two paintings. "Cobra Sutra" is about being crazy in love and "Wild Meat" is a larger duplicate of the fun book cover she created for Lois-Ann Yamanaka's first novel, "Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers."
No matter the show title, there's plenty of irreverence and fun. Michael Harada's make-believe white dog pooping elicits many chuckles from viewers, especially from children, who aren't offended easily by poop, which, in this case, is bright red.
Harada and Jon Hamblin, best buddies from art school days and occasional DJs at University of Hawaii radio station KTUH, did a great job hanging the show. With 44 pieces of artwork, the task was not a piece of cake.
Man is the dominant theme in Hamblin's paintings, which are filled with his trademark man dancer and stream-of-consciousness writing. "Let's face it, my paintings are all about me, me, me," says Hamblin, spoken like a typical man.
The Wo/man also has plenty attitude. Vicky Chock's clay Chinese women, whether juggling a stack of tea cups or sporting a pineapple headdress, each exudes distinct persona and a lively facial expression. But they are not based on live people; don't go looking for the real Mrs. Wu in "Mrs. Wu and her Mangoes."
And don't blink or one can easily mistake Esther Shimazu's "Smooth Swimmer" for a woman. It's a he, but looks very much like the full-figure stoneware women that Shimazu can't make fast enough for mainland collectors. "Poor guy, he's kind of fried, too," says Shimazu, whose last firing went awry and the swimmer came out more cooked than intended.
Shimazu and Jo Rowley have been working like wild dogs to complete pieces for the Linekona show and a mainland show opening next month in Davis, Calif. "We have a pushy agent," Shimazu says, but he's an effective salesman (and also represents Chock.)
The Linekona show opened Tuesday night with an upbeat crowd that brought lots of lei and edibles. "It was like graduation night," says Kay Mura, who began organizing the show two years ago. She was exhausted but elated that she pulled off the 13-artist group exhibition.
Sales were good, too, on opening night. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts gave its acquisition awards to Fred Roster's very impressive "More Attached Than You Think" bronze-stone-steel-wood sculpture, Yee's "Wild Meat" and Endicott's "Pigs on White." Among other purchases: Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, a longtime art lover, bought a drawing of a nude by K. Everett.
Kazu Fukuda has the last word. To the attempts to censor a pair of bare breasts on his sculpture for Campbell High School, Fukuda cooks up a dinner party titled "Self Portrait: A Loss of Appetite." On a platter decorated with plastic fruit, the feast to be devoured is a human face with his mouth sewn shut.
Gardening Calendar
Suzanne Tswei's art column runs Sundays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, Suite 7-210, Honolulu, HI, 96813
or email stswei@starbulletin.com
