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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, April 6, 2003

Shoeboxes open up varied surprises

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic

 •  The 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition

Through April 17

University of Hawai'i at Manoa Art Gallery

10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays

Free parking on Sundays

956-6888

Wandering around the 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition is like being in a funhouse maze. A series of long tables twists and turns its way around the gallery corners, offering foot-sized revelations.

By invitation only, artists submit to this triennial exhibit sculptures that challenge their limitations of space and scale — whatever fits into a shoebox — and that is where the tickling begins.

Shoebox sculptures, 145 of them, arrived from two-dozen foreign countries and from the U.S. Mainland and Hawai'i. Half of the sculptures will be selected to travel to 13 venues in Taiwan, the Mainland, Guam and Maui.

Considering the international assembly of artists who contributed to this exhibit, it is not surprising how diverse the media used in the creative process are: glass, metal, wood, bamboo rhizomes, fiber, wire, wax, clay, found objects, beads, shells, human hair, teeth, feathers, blood pressure machines, music — and you name it, it's probably there. The variety of styles, media and subjects pull the mind's eye like taffy.

The themes range from humorous human insights, serious concerns about politics, war, economy, and technology to forms of beauty and hope for salvation. Some may even be distasteful, but their potency is easier to swallow because of their small size. And provoking a thought process is not undesirable when it comes to art. It's stimulating.

The 25 invited Hawai'i artists are: Satoru Abe, Bernice Akamine, Kimberlin A. Blackburn, Jolly Bodine, Gaye Chan, Vicky Chock, Kazu Fukuda, Pat Hickman, Renee Iijima, May Izumi, Linda Kane, Jacqueline Lee, Lynn Weiler Liverton, Wayne Morioka, Diane Nushida-Tokuno, Yukio Ozaki, Aaron Padilla, Cade Roster, Fred Roster, Mamoru Sato, Frank Sheriff, Esther Shimazu, Jason Teraoka, Cynthia Tesoro, and Shige Yamada.

The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts purchased 12 of the sculptures (which we might see again someday in the Hawai'i State Art Museum), including four by Hawai'i-based artists:

  • Renee Iijima's poetic "A Secret We Sometimes Know," a shadowbox-style xeroxed female figure with closed eyes, wave patterns on her dress and patterned holes burned throughout.
  • Vicky Chock's fanciful "Vegetarian Tang Figure," a classical clay figure, clad with a chili pepper and vegetable robe, holding a Chinese cabbage and scallions.
  • May Izumi's adorably peculiar "Hey! Diddle! Jump!," a clay, copper wire, polymer clay and fiber construction of a pieced-together cow jumping over a moon.
  • And Frank Sheriff's allegorical "The Teacher: Myth and Reality," a bronze sculpture assembled from casts of collected things — a tea cup and saucer, a Buddha with the head of a dog, wrench, dinosaur, lighting bolt, cloud, umbrella and a flying pig, to name a few.

And from other locales:

  • From Wisconsin, John Balsley's "Wolf," a high-tech fabricated aluminum wolf with a spiral in its mouth.
  • From Massachusetts, William Harrington's "Land Shark," a humorous construction of a wooden shark's fin on wheels.
  • From Hong Kong, Freeman Lau's "Peter and Mary," two interlocked elegant black chairs made of polywood.
  • From Japan, Masafumi Maita's "The Signs of Spring," a zen-like assembly of a stone with a bronze bamboo stem and shoot.
  • From New York, Arthur Mednick's "Groove III," a minimally-worked piece of soft-edged steel.
  • From Ohio, Yoshitomo Saito's "I Was There," two baby shoes embedded in wax.
  • From Japan, Kimio Tsuchiya's "Untitled," two wood blocks, one mottled with paint and ash and the other gold-leafed.
  • From Wisconsin, Kyoung Ae Cho's "Each Other-VIII," two asymmetrical, conically-shaped pieces of wood with finely patterned burn marks.

With so many intriguing sculptures, it is difficult to choose a favorite — however beautifully poignant and well-crafted some of the sculptures are — but a few left impressions that echo in my mind.

Katrina Houston's "Desire 3," made of paper, glue and thread, consists of six balls of different sizes connected by thread with 'I want' printed all over three of them and 'Please' all over the other three.

Chrystl Rijkeboer's strangely political "Welkom" is made of a box of delft tiles filled with balls of human hair and teeth. The hair comes from different ethnic groups and signifies the prejudicial changes occurring in the Netherlands.

Satoru Abe's "Caged" is like a sonnet in brass and copper instead of words.

Veralee Bassler's Substance Abuse" made of clay and industrial material, is a like a knock on the head — not very attractive but profound and timely.

In her statement she wrote, "This sculpture speaks of my concern for the state of gluttony that mires us all in oil, politically and economically, with little national focus on curbing the appetite."

Sounds are emitted from the sculptures "Godfather" by Top Changtrakul (playing the movie's theme song on a looped CD which lends a dramatic backdrop of music to the exhibit) and "Story" by Jen-Hung Liang (engaging the whoosh of an old blood-pressure gauge while playing a scratchy soprano voice singing a Chinese song).

When I visited the exhibit (on a Sunday), four families were enjoying the show together.

The children's excitement was infectious. Considering this, it is good to know school tours can be arranged by calling Sharon Tasaka, associate director of the gallery, at 956-6888.

Only once every three years are we treated to such a diverse, worldwide exhibit. For some, it is the highlight of the year. If you have never been, there's not much time left to enjoy the show. Just go.

No sense in reminding you that good things come in small packages.