Local Color
Sunday, August 5, 2001
IT WOULD BE EASY to mistake the vintage red-leather and white-enameled barber chair as a piece of art on display at the @the UnDergROUND. It is handsome, and it is the first and the most prominent thing visitors see as they enter the new downtown gallery. New gallery is
cutting-edge, and cutting
hair as wellThe chair isn't part of the art exhibit, but it does tell the story of gallery owner Charles Hansen.
"The chair is there because I also cut hair and because I used to cut hair at Vidal Sassoon in London and because I love art but I also have to eat," Hansen said.
The chair is on loan from an artist friend in Honolulu. It is functional and the perfect compliment to his unconventional gallery, Hansen said. His haircuts, which, he said, are more appropriately categorized as "hair sculpting," cost $20 for women and $15 for men. No appointments are necessary.
'SLABS' and
See also: "Gallery" in today's edition
'Turning New Tricks'Avant-garde ceramic art by Arthur Nelander and manipulated photography by Leslee Giovale, respectively
Place: @the UnDergROUND, the basement of 91 S. King St.
Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays or by appointment, through Aug. 25
Admission: Free
Call: 348-0591, 595-6377
Hansen has done no advertising for his salon service, but he has lobbied tirelessly for newspaper mentions for his gallery.
"I love PR, man, I just love it. There's no such thing as bad PR, right? If you get bad press, it just gets you more attention, right? So, it's good, not bad. Life is about who you meet, and also it's about promoting yourself," Hansen declared.
The 55-year-old Bronx native was never shy about promoting himself, managing to transform himself from a New York cab driver to a "rock 'n' roll" hair stylist for the renowned Vidal Sassoon practically overnight in 1969.
"While driving, I noticed some of the more exclusive salons around. I have this thing about women, and here I see guys working on women. Gee, I thought, that seems like a nice profession," Hansen said.
He studied women's magazines and noticed that Sassoon was the most successful. So he hopped on an airplane for London and asked to be an apprentice. He was hired right away.
He hopscotched from various salons from London to New York and then moved to Maui after he fell in love with a Maui woman while on vacation there. He operated several hair salons for several years but grew tired of the business and began building homes for sale. Later, he operated vacation rental cottages in Haiku for 12 years before moving to Honolulu three years ago to be closer to his son from his first marriage. He has been married and divorced four times.
His current girlfriend is an art lover and introduced him to "the art scene," he said. He has always loved art, beginning when his grandfather, a sign painter, first shoved a paint brush in his hand when he was 7.
HE IS FULLY AWARE of the uphill battle gallery owners face. Honolulu isn't an art-selling town (except for realistic scenery and still-life work), and a string of downtown galleries have come and gone. But his gallery is different, Hansen said. And he hopes that hosting wine tastings, private parties and hair-cutting at the gallery will bring revenue to supplement skimpy art sales. He also takes on construction jobs on evenings and weekends to help pay the bills.
"There is a method to my madness, actually," Hansen said, outlining his plan for success. He opened his gallery with a show of the Digital Art Society of Hawaii on June 20. "I knew if I wanted attention, I could get a lot of attention with a group like the Digital Art Society. That's savvy, isn't it?" Hansen asked rhetorically.
The show gave him access to the large mailing list from the society, which gave him a customer/audience base. The exhibit also led to Peter Chamberlain, a University of Hawaii art professor who juried the digital art show. Hansen was able to snag Chamberlain, who seldom shows his work in Hawaii, for the second exhibit.
Hansen's big plan calls for a hip gallery with a unique "art and rock 'n' roll" atmosphere to attract an audience, he said.
As for the art, Hansen displays his own digital prints in the first room along with the barber chair. The rest of the space is given to whatever strikes his fancy, with an emphasis on the offbeat.
"I am here to present art that hasn't been shown before or is not readily available to the public. It's basically a new stage for new, emerging, fun people," he said.
But if a well-established artist who does traditional oil paintings of bowls of fruits wants to show in his gallery, Hansen said he'd consider the proposal also.
"Basically, I am the judge here. And if the presentation is good, I am willing to let everybody show. I believe in giving everybody a chance."
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
