Posted on: Sunday, January 13, 2002
Art
Cultural concepts inspire Hawai'i artists in new shows
By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic
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| Mark Norseth's watercolor "Radieux" won Best in Show in the 2001 show of the Hawai'i Watercolor Society.
Artists • Who: Wayne Miyata • Where: Bibelot Gallery, 1130 Koko Head Ave. • When: -- Through Feb. 1 • Information: 738-0368 • Who: Kau'i Chun • Where: Emma Gallery, The Queen's Medical Center • When: Through Feb. 10 (artist's reception today, 1:30-3:30) • Information: 537-7167 • Who: Mark Norseth and Flora Cruells Benzal • Where: Gallery at Ward Centre • When: Through Jan. 25 • Information: 597-8034 |
Kaua'i ceramic artist Wayne Miyata has played with the concept of Zen figures for a couple of years now, progressing from simple stoneware forms with rugged, textured glazes to the graceful figures he is exhibiting this month at Bibelot.
The main figure in the current show is Daruma, the 6th-century Buddhist monk who was the founder of Zen. Daruma's search for enlightenment is expressed by the phrase "Nana korobi, ya oki" (Fall seven, rise eight), meaning that we must persist in our endeavors, no matter how many times we fail.
Miyata has taken his abstract Daruma figures and put them into sequences of eight. Eight Darumas are balanced one atop another in a vertical format. Or eight are arranged horizontally on a wooden base. The Darumas range in size from about 4" to 5.5" inches, but the figures in each grouping are all the same size, as if each is a representation of the same figure in a different mood — laughing, quizzical, angry, forlorn.wo aspects of Daruma are depicted in these various moods, the one aged, the other gay or in drag. Miyata points out that a man dressed as a woman actually embodies the Zen concept that the distinction between man and woman no longer exists when one attains nirvana.
The Darumas are unglazed. They have been burnished to achieve a glowing surface in the natural orange color of clay and low-fired for a bisque finish. The bases are beautiful milo wood, cut by artist Robert Hamada.
Also in the show are paired figures, modeled so that they rest against one another. In "Two Minds in Harmony," a tiger and a monk sweetly meld their forms. In "Hotei Pushing a Ball," the monk Hotei leans into a ball that is as big as he is. Hotei's struggle with the ball, like that of Sisyphus, reflects the Zen tenet that enlightenment is achieved by persistent and difficult work.
Only in "Sleeping Hotei," in which Hotei rests against the sack he always carries, is the relation of one part to the other less successful. Here the sack appears not integral with the figure of Hotei but a separate entity.
The paired Zen figures as well as a group of animals for the Chinese lunar calendar have a soft celadon glaze, some a light, bright porcelain, others a grayer stoneware.
Miyata's new work is lovely for the delicacy and purity of its forms as well as for its finishes — whether shiny burnished clay or translucent celadon glaze. Not that the earlier pieces are without merit, for that is far from the case. In fact, a selection of earlier works is also at Bibelot, including a delightful figure of "Hotei Crossing the River," which rests on a base glazed with a blue water motif.
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While steeped in the traditions of his culture, Native Hawaiian artist Kau'i Chun uses 21st-century concepts and media to express his ideas.
When asked to do a show for the Queen Emma Gallery dedicated to King Kamehameha IV and his queen, Emma, Chun selected healing as his theme, relating the show both to the queen who founded Queen's Hospital 149 years ago and to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
There are two aspects to the show: an installation titled "Healing Touch" and another titled "Healing Wall." Both are large, conceptual pieces, designed to create a milieu of healing within the walls of a healing institution.
"Healing Touch" is inspired by the 60 practitioners who provide healing touch therapy for patients at the hospital. Chun hand printed these Native Hawaiian healers, using FBI-type fingerprinting ink on sheets of frosted and clear acetate.
For "Healing Wall," Chun photocopied texts related to healing from diverse cultures. Included are words from the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, Buddhist meditations and Christian liturgy. The focal point is a lament for Kamehameha written by Queen Emma in 1864 to commemorate the death of her husband.
The photocopies are details from the texts, blown up and copied over so that the words lose their identity as words and become reverberating patterns as one language and alphabet is juxtaposed with another. They are reproduced on Rives drawing paper, which gives them a soft, dense look.
Although both walls are conceptually powerful, evoking a strong sense of belief in ancient healing practices and in global spiritual systems, they suffer somewhat from a lack of finish or attention to detail that one hopes to find in a fully realized artwork. In "Healing Touch," the overlappings of the acetate seem awkward and unplanned. Some of the 144 sheets of drawing paper in "Healing Wall" are tacked down and some are flapping at the two lower corners, without apparent plan.
An artist's reception will be held at the Queen Emma Gallery today, 1:30-3:30. The public is invited.
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Mark Norseth, one of Hawai'i's finest painters in a traditional mode, is exhibiting a selection of oils, watercolors and pastels at the Gallery at Ward Centre, a cooperative gallery of which he is a member (and where he often can be found at his easel on his days tending the store).
The paintings were mostly made during recent travels in New York City and on Monhegan Island, Maine. They are marked especially by a deft handling of light — sunlight shining on a barn side in "The Milkshed, Monhegan Island," dawn light on a hillside in "Monhegan Shack" and glowing light from within a Greenwich Village hat shop in "Radieux."
Also exhibited at Ward Centre are quirky, fun ceramics by gallery guest artist Flora Cruells Benzal. Influenced by the work of Surreal artists from her native Spain, Benzal is, as she says in her artist's statement, concerned with not being boring.
Boring she's not. Her whimsical constructions in ceramic are both intelligently conceived and very witty.
Virginia Wageman can be reached at VWageman@aol.com.
