Private passions inspire eclectic public exhibit

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic

•	'Private Passions' Through Feb. 21 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays Noon to 4 p.m. Sundays University of Hawai'i Art Gallery 956-6888 'Emerging Photographers of Hawai'i' Through Feb. 14 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday Pegge Hopper Gallery 1164 Nu'uanu Ave. 524-1160

Pat Hickman, art professor and chair of the fiber department at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, lived in Turkey for seven years in the 1960s. The baby blue walls in the section titled "Clothed In Message" represent a collection focused on humble textiles: hand towels, vests, a village woman's wedding dress with embroidery and appliqué work, wall panels, pillow covers, undergarments, a felt coat, bed spreads and a prayer mat — all used in her classes as teaching tools. Although unsophisticated, they employ an amazing range of materials and techniques.

"I became interested in how people communicated with textiles," Hickman says. "Even in a culture where there might not be a lot said, there was a lot understood based on what the textiles had to say."

Also included is a dowry box with 40 (an important number in Islamic culture) scarves from a woman's dowry. These are a great example of "talkative textiles" because the crocheted edgings convey messages between women in Anatolia. The red pepper edging on one conveys the message that the wearer is arguing with her husband. Hickman's interest in these hand-woven textiles changed her direction in life.

The deep rose walls of "Of Prophets, Poets, Princes and Peasants: Art of Qajar Iran (1785-1925)" belong to a collector who began this collection in1971 and prefers to remain anonymous.

"Sometimes our commitment to a place is spiritual," this collector said. "It is beyond biology. I have spiritual roots in Iran."

The paintings represent an illustration of merging of cultures and times — traditional Islamic society and the modern world, elements of European painting subjects and techniques, and Persian painting.

"The Prophet Muhammad with His Grandsons Hasan and Husayn," a sizeable oil on canvas (mid-19th century), is a gem in the collection, along with the highly-detailed miniature gouache and gold-leaf painting "Sheik San'an and the Christian Girl" (19th century), both cross-culturally mystifying. The majority of works in this room are thought-provoking in that they address the meddling of Westerners in the affairs of the Islamic world. Take time to read the accompanying narratives.

"I am fascinated with art that is connected with religion in some way," says this collector. "There is a purity of faith. We believe. Work that is connected with religion has a quasi-magical quality. It is mysterious."

"You can feel the spices," says assistant UH art gallery director Sharon Tasaka, in the tangerine-colored room displaying the stone, wood, bronze and brass sculptures and other artifacts in "In Praise of the Gods" from India and Nepal. All are from the collection of Gulab and Indru Watumull.

"The piece that started the whole thing," says Indru Watumull, "is the small head of Shiva in the exhibit, 12 inches high, from central India. I feel strong ties with India." After bringing the piece back to Hawai'i, she sought out a professor of Indian Art at UH who verified the significance of her purchase and encouraged her interest.

"I love sculpture. It is so tactile," says Watumull. "Religious sculptures are illuminating. The rules are all laid down for these artists, every gesture and mudra (hand position) is preplanned and according to text. The curve of the body, the way the nose is done, the eyebrows and eyes represent something inspirational."

Framed by a keyhole archway, a wooden Buddha and two Bodhisattvas from Nepal (14th century) stand atop pedestals. During negotiations for their purchase, Watumull proposed that the dealer sell her the Buddha alone. His reply was, she says, "Mrs. Watumull, they have been together since the 14th century. You are not going to separate them now."

The room with lapis blue walls houses the section "Beyond the Himalayan Mists: Rugs of the Tibetan Plateau."

"I am not just a passionate collector, I am passionate about life in general," says David Slusher, who has collected rugs from Morocco to Tibet. Initially inspired by a friend who bought rugs, he set out to educate himself. A passion developed and 20 years later it has become encompassing; he even works at the Indich Collection.

The 18th- and 19th-century rugs in the exhibit are from remote places and have tribal and talismanic iconography woven into an ancient pile-weaving technique. Made for specific uses, the rugs are extremely dense and made with naturally-colored dyes. "Nomadic Warp-Faced Back Rug" (18th century), with its geometric designs, would appear to be a rug used for priests and visiting devotees.

The "Thrown Back," a rug used for monastic purposes, uses a knotted-pile weaving technique with brilliant colors and an elaborate design portraying a double dragon — a significant symbol in both Taoist and Buddhist philosophy.

Two rugs in the exhibit were loaned to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco to be placed in a meditation room for the Dalai Lama during his visit.

The jurying process of this Image Foundation exhibit was based on quality, innovation, originality and depth of the works submitted as well as a recognizable emerging version, and initial technical mastery. Seven artists were selected.

Eric Belland's wall-sized "Mom and Dad" was traced from a negative with the use of a slide projector and a black Sharpie pen onto backdrop paper. "If you take a photograph it allows you to separate the moment and meditate on it," says Belland. "Drawing it allows you to remember the specifics of it and at the same time sets it apart from the rest of what happened."

Pualana Lemelle's five black-and-white silver gelatin print portraits address female beauty, natural and unnatural and the role a dress plays in our culture. Her shoots include the wielding of a bulky 4 x 5 old-style press camera — an awkward and strange experience — and the construction and design of the theatrical dresses (tulle with sticks, nylon mess with Styrofoam chips and pinned handmade paper) that appear in her images. The dresses represent "a contract that we mold ourselves into," says Lemelle. She has placed one female model in each of her photographs to signify the unique quality all women possess. Her titles, a personal joke, work to maintain the discontinuity of her images and the ambiguity of beauty. "Portrait of a Man with 2 Arms" is a photograph of a woman's legs.

Will Lichty's four chromogenic prints "Untitled from the Flag Series" were taken post-Sept. 11 and "deal with the immediate knee-jerk reaction to put flags up," says Lichty. "To me it's almost an oversimplification. You put up a flag and you lose any discussion. They are everywhere. When you look at pictures of Nazi Germany there are swastikas everywhere. It might seem harmless to put up a flag like this but if you think about it, we are getting numb to the idea and it loses all its meaning." His large sculptural "Dogdechedron" made of wood with Plexiglas and silver gelatin prints of dogs engaged in various procreative and eliminative activities was removed after the opening because it was considered offensive by the gallery owner.

Dominique Pandolfi, a Maui resident, has been a certified doula (labor and birth supporter) for 11 years, so it isn't any surprise that her passion is photographing pregnant women. In this, her first exhibit, six black-and-white silver gelatin prints taken without flash or added lighting celebrate the phenomenal strength and exquisite beauty of the birthing process.

"Birth," a power-packed photograph, contrasts the ripe, round curves of a woman's body with the intensity of pain visible in her grasping hand — standing, supported by a man, the scene is a créche of magnificence. "Nannette," although photographed on Maui, is evocative of another time, another country.

Inka Resch, who recently participated in the "Dreaming in Color" exhibit at the Arts at Mark's Garage, has focused this body of chromogenic prints on the blue light emanating from television screens photographed at night outside houses. "Inside the light is normal, but outside it turns into another world," says Resch who moves through neighborhoods at night discovering the extraordinary surprises that appear in our ordinary world.

Erin Williamson's three Van Dyke prints were inspired by the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. Different elements in the story connect to her prints: domestication, technology, violence and the divine character that is surrounded by butterflies. Like the novel, the dreamy quality in her work incorporates real elements. The archaic process of making a Van Dyke print is silver-based. "I use 16-by-20 inch negatives, printing the background first and the symbol or icon on top." These prints are actually photograms made by shining light through a moth, gun and part of a bird. The backgrounds are produced the same way using, in this case, a Smith chart, a piece of dirty Plexiglass and a bed sheet.

Marc Yoakum has been making pinhole photographs for five years. As a commercial photographer e uses sophisticated equipment. In contrast, his pinhole cameras, which are on display, are actually made from books — their contents were the stimulus that inspired these images. "Memorial at Bowfin Park" with the book "Camera: American Military History 1607-1958."

The Image Foundation is a 25-year-old non-profit organization devoted to furthering contemporary photography in Hawai'i. Information: David Ulrich, (808) 988-8620; e-mail, pacimage@maui.net.