Angst, creativity help transform fiber into fine art

Editor's note: Victoria Gail-White contributed work to the Fiber Hawai'i show covered here, so our Paula Rath — an artist and fashion designer as well as a journalist — wrote about this exhibit.

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

•	Hawai'i Craftsmen presents Fiber Hawai'i '03 1 to 5 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays, through Feb. 28 Gallery 'Iolani, Windward Community College

In the art world, however, fiber has a broader meaning, and in the "Fiber Hawai'i '03" exhibit at the beautiful new Gallery 'Iolani at Windward Community College, artists have stretched the boundaries of the definition in original and engaging ways.

In addition to materials one might expect to see in a fiber-arts show — silk, hemp, cotton, paper — the artists used color transparencies, volcanic cinders, old fish nets, copper, plaited lead, adhesive tape, glass and bamboo, to name a few.

In her juror's statement, Emily DuBois, a Big Island studio artist and teacher, said: "Whether by accident or by hard work over time, works of art can transcend their material conditions to speak to us in a direct and immediate way. This quality is what I was looking for, and happily found, in many of the works."

Allison Roscoe's "International Dialogue," selected for the brochure photo, was inspired by an overabundance of listening to world news on the radio. "I was so disgusted by all the shouting and no one talking to anyone else. They can't see the forest (for) the trees," she said. Translating this angst into a work of art, Roscoe entwined twigs with gut so they could hold little strips of words — in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, English and some languages she couldn't identify — that reach out in an attempt to connect.

Dee van Dyke's "All Cloaked Up," an elegant 12-inch-high sculpture crafted from hand-woven wool and raku, has a haunting face peeking out as if from behind a burka.

Fashion plays a role, though not a starring one, in the exhibit. Anna Peach turned natural materials we usually find on the ground in our back yard into alluring fashion statements, crafting sexy bustiers from wilwili and koa seeds, twigs and pods.

In a nod to her national dress, Soonjurng Kwon combined the Korean hanbok with deconstructed denim, lace bra cups, vintage linens and cut-up camisoles in her work, "Progress/Tradition."

Laura Lewis-Motta and Victoria Gail-White (The Advertiser's art reviewer) interpreted traditional Polynesian tapa in untraditional ways: Lewis-Motta used resist and pigment on hemp, while Gail-White marbled silk in rich shades of brown, embellishing the fabric with tiny shells and beads.

"Bundle and Scrap" by Pat Hickman are two related sculptures made of knotted netting, gut, cast aluminum, indigo dye, ink and metallic art stick.

Only upon close inspection does it become clear that Madeleine Soder's four-foot diameter "Embraced" is a delicate, ethereal bowl made entirely of diaphanous bodhi leaves.

Another ethereal collection, on a smaller scale, is Lori Uehara's "Cradled," "Ribbon Tail" and "Delicate Tangle." Crafted from feathers, washi, and something mysterious that looks like (but is not) bird skeletons, they have the vulnerability of a bird's nest that's been vacated and left to blow in the wind.

An elegant, sculpture, reminiscent of Native American pottery in shape but not in color, is Gregg Smith's "Basket in Purple." It is made with turned wood that Smith burned and colored with prism markers in deep shades of eggplant juxtaposed with earth tones.

On a somber note is Sandra Clark's "Hiroshima Fragments" series. "Fragments II" is tattered, pieced and shredded in dark earth tones, yet is spiked with bright scraps of fabric, some of which offer the illusion of the sun shining through. "Fragments IV" is light and airy, made of white hand-painted silk which Clark discharge painted and embellished with shreds of silk. The delicate dichotomy of the piece is almost cloudlike in its simplicity, yet ominous in its message.

The whimsy and amusement of Kathy Tosh's "Few Suspected Her Roots Would Be So Colorful," woven with yarn and wire in hot pinks, reds and lavenders, offers balance and a fine counterpoint to the heavier messages in the show.