Art Review
Photographs capture private moments in public places

By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic

Despite absorption in their own pursuits,"Intimacy" suggests a strong connection between the subjects. Linda Hosek Linda Hosek Art Gallery, Hawai'i Pacific University 45-045 Kamehameha Highway, KŒne'ohe Mon.-Sat., 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Jan. 25 Sonchai Nisayaphantha Queen Emma Gallery, the Queen's Medical Center 1301 Punchbowl St. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sat. & Sun., 8 a.m.-noon Through Wednesday Roots, Wings, Halos Gallery on the Pali 2500 Pali Highway Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. — 8 p.m.; Sat. & Sun., 1-4 pm. Through Jan. 10

Even old Abe gets in the picture, with a photo of a proud black man sharing a bench with a statue of Lincoln i something no doubt beyond Lincoln's wildest dreams back in 1863 when he freed the slaves.

Hosek, a reporter with KHNL-TV in Honolulu, is interested in storytelling — the focus of her journalism both on television and earlier as a reporter for the Honolulu Star Bulletin and other newspapers. Her photographs, which today she makes an outside interest, also tell stories or capture a moment in a story.

Early in her career as a journalist, beginning in her student days, Hosek carried her camera around on assignments and made photographs to document her stories. She studied the work of well-known documentary photographers and took workshops with Mary Ellen Mark and Arnold Newman, both famous for their images of people.

In her current body of work, Hosek is concerned with capturing peoples' private moments in public settings. With superb attention to composition, she manages to frame her subjects in ways that bring a feeling of majesty to scenes that might otherwise seem mundane.

Though Hosek made most of the photographs during world travels, the people in them are anonymous and the settings could be almost anyplace. Even Waikiki beach scenes achieve a universality and could be of people on almost any beach in the world.

What is most remarkable about these photographs is a suggestion of the artist's intimate connection with her subjects. That comes through powerfully in each photo. Although several of the photos were slightly staged by Hosek, for the most part they are simply scenes she saw and photographed, which makes them all the more extraordinary, especially given the complex organization of some of the compositions.

Most of the photos have a lot going on in them — something that Hosek says she likes — which tends to heighten the drama of the particular moment. Despite the background activity, it is the tender image to which we are drawn — a kiss or an embrace, a flirtatious glance, or an invisible yet palpable connection between a man and a woman, each separately typing on their laptops.

Particularly refreshing in this day of computer manipulation, the photographs, all black and white, are uncropped, direct prints from the negatives.

Spiritual expressions

Two exhibitions coinciding with the holidays demonstrate the diversity of religions in Hawai'i and around the world. In one, we have a Thai artist depicting Christian themes, while in the other a group of women of several ethnicities and religious persuasions exhibit works that reflect their responses to spirituality.

The Thai artist, Sonchai Nisayaphantha, converted to Christianity in 1985. His drawings are exquisitely rendered conceptions of biblical scenes and personages, reminiscent of the draftsmanship of old-master drawings.

However, old masters such as Leonardo and Michelangelo, while depicting Christian themes, drew their people with astonishingly lifelike individuality, something missing in Nisayaphantha's drawings. In their idealized visions of such figures as Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the drawings fail to convince that these were living people.

A totally different take on spirituality is apparent in the work of five women who are currently exhibiting at the Gallery on the Pali. They are Tiare Dutcher, Daria Fand, Kaethe Kauffman, Alshaa Rayne and Katherine Smith. Titled "Roots, Wings, Halos," the show focuses on images drawn from various religious and spiritual paths.

Dutcher, a Buddhist, includes two very personal works in the show. One, titled "Om Mani Padme Hum," her personal mantra, is a bronze casting that includes her hand, her jeans and her meditation beads. The other, a painting titled "After the Night Rain," is a joyful abstraction of vivid colors, orgasmic in its heightened emotionality.

Kauffman also refers to meditation and love in her works. Especially striking are three-foot painted Plexiglas panels in the form of a meditating woman, hung in the windows like oversize tree ornaments.

Goddesses are the subject of Smith's work. An especially powerful example is found in the painting titled "Krishna," in which the traditionally male Hindu god is depicted as a woman, upside down, as if descending to unite with the earth, subverting the conventional view of ascension to the heavens.

Fand uses a pagan story of virginity and fertility as the theme for her work, referring in her paintings to the mythological figures of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. While referencing biblical scenes, Rayne's works might as well be pagan, as they express irreverent views of Scripture. She is known for her constructions using found materials, very often with Barbie and Ken dolls. Here an Asian Ken becomes Joseph, his Mary a blonde bombshell. A headless Ken doll serves as John the Baptist, and dolls for Cain and Abel are dressed as an American and a Afghan Talib.

In her statement that accompanies the show, one of the women says that art is everywhere. We might add that spirituality is everywhere, and thank these women for reminding us of that at Christmas.

Virginia Wageman can be reached at VWageman@aol.com