Up at thirtyninehotel ...
| • | T.G.I.First Friday |
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Gelareh Khoie walks past one of her paintings at thirtyninehotel, a multimedia art gallery that she helped create. The Iranian-born artist had long wanted a place where artists of all stripes could put their creativity on display. The gallery is in a Chinatown loft, and takes its name from its address, 39 Hotel St.
Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser thirtyninehotel Gallery and café hours: Noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays beginning tomorrow 39 Hotel St. 599-2552 Opening tonight, 5-9 p.m.: Book One, works by Richard Earl Leong Yu Ralya Through September Other events: Quiet Storm 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturdays |
The folks making their way up the steep and narrow stairway leading to Khoie's gallery for her Quiet Storm weekly have thinned in the four weeks since she launched it. But Khoie — behind the tables spinning classic Steely Dan, McFadden & Whitehead and smooth melodious house — seems as happy with a dozen people attending her "contemporary dance music party ... dedicated to providing beautiful music for connoisseurs" as she would a hundred.
The gathered seem sated, too. They chill with toted-in wine and beer on funky lounge chairs, couches and a daybed tucked in the loft's rear. A few enjoy conversations and libations on a large open-air lanai surrounded by brightly-lit high-rises and a canopy of low, ominous rain clouds.
Bathed in tiny squares of blue and red light reflected off a mirror ball suspended above the spacious Chinatown loft, Khoie, 33, apologizes for the smallish crowd even though she doesn't have to. She'd already explained the substantial — if not entirely infinite — limits of her patience regarding thirtyninehotel.
"There are a lot of things that I want to do that I can't do all at the same time. I'm really going to take my time here," she promised, a couple of days earlier, as we sat in a very different thirtyninehotel. The gallery ws then bright with afternoon sunlight bouncing off newly-painted white walls and a scattering of Khoie's paintings. "I'll give every new event we inaugurate some time to mature before moving on to the next thing."
She wants thirtyninehotel's debut art exhibition — a Richard Earl Leong Yu Ralya show, opening at tonight's First Fridays art walk — to encourage people to return for others already scheduled for the months ahead. She wants a small cafÚ she'll open at thirtyninehotel on Saturday to be an afternoon gathering spot for downtown office workers and students seeking quiet relief from the streets. Most of all, though, Khoie wants artists of all types — painters, DJs, dancers, promoters, actors, whatever — to know that thirtyninehotel is the equivalent of a blank canvas for their creativity.
And all they have to do to color it is ask.
Beginnings
Thirtyninehotel isn't the first Chinatown gallery space aiming to be more than a home for still life. The ARTS at Marks Garage, Studio 1 and Soullenz Gallery also have staked their reputations on theater, music, dance and DJ events.
Khoie has wanted a multimedia space like thirtyninehotel for some time.
"I've always just wanted to have my own little space that I could use to express myself," said Khoie (pronounced Geh-la-rey Ko-ee), recalling her childhood in Tehran, Iran. "When I was 10 years old, I decided that I wanted to open a sandwich shop on the corner of the street."
Khoie's family moved to California in 1986, when she was 15. Day-to-day living had been difficult in Iran since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized control of the country in 1979, and Khoie's mother wanted a better life and future for her daughter.
"There weren't many options there, and I wasn't very scholarly," said Khoie, laughing. "It was clear that I wasn't going to study hard enough to get into the universities."
The family eventually settled in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, where Khoie immediately found her high school art classes more appealing than anything in AP English or math. Post-graduation, Khoie revisited a teenage love of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.
"For me, it became a spiritual experience ... a subconscious journey every time," Khoie said of painting. "When I paint, my mind still just kind of shuts off and I hold communion with a more spiritual side of life."
Khoie continued to paint after following her then-boyfriend back to his native Honolulu after graduating in 1995. Having struck up friendships on the local artist scene, Khoie remained after they broke up. Several local exhibitions of her work followed, but Khoie was interested in more than just gallery space for her art.
With a goal of removing art from the constraints of a gallery setting, Khoie formed the multimedia, interactive artist collective Special Prescription in 1999. Later that year, Special Prescription collaborated with DJ/writer and current Indigo Eurasian Cuisine Get Fresh! sage Mark Chittom on Velvet, a still-missed downtown party that combined interactive art and turntablists.
It was at one of Velvet's earliest parties that Khoie met London-based mixologist DJ Harvey.
STORM WARNING
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| Co-creator Gelareh Khoie describes thirtyninehotel as "an empty white space for a variety of people to paint their impressions on." |
At the end of Velvet's run in early 2001, Harvey also had an idea for a new Honolulu weekly.
"He thought Hawai'i needed a good weekly party that played a steady stream of positive music from the past and the present ... music that emanated some of the other things going on around the world," said Khoie.
Quiet Storm was born on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2001, in a tiny brick loft above Indigo as an intelligent mix of smooth '70s R&B, pre-"Saturday Night Fever" disco, SoCal folk pop and house for arty music lovers. Four brave souls (including Khoie) showed up for opening night.
Still, word gradually spread about the weekly. Harvey would always spin when in town. A stable of residents including Chittom and Gary-O held court the rest of the time. The crowd eventually grew to 15, then 60, then more.
"By the time we closed, we had up to 150 people a week coming to this 600-square-foot studio," said Khoie. "And they'd be up on the roof, on the mezzanine just above Indigo, and crammed in the studio dancing."
Entry was free.
"And I always had a bunch of Budweisers and a cooler, and people could just take a beer and put some money in a donation jar," said Khoie. "It was all about the love. And I think it had a really good impact on people."
Worried that Quiet Storm's growing crowds were opening up considerable liability issues, however, the building's landlords closed the nightspot in October 2001 at the peak of its popularity. Devastated by Quiet Storm's shuttering, Khoie lay low for more than two years.
PUNK ROCK PURPOSE
"My whole thing always was to have a space to show art," said Khoie. "And because there are so many commercial galleries in Hawai'i, I wanted to focus on the noncommercial."
Khoie entered 2004 with goals of painting again, reviving Quiet Storm, and opening a gallery for talented artists working with nonconventional media. Oh, and the gallery had to be downtown.
She found a second-floor Hotel Street loft with high ceilings, ample wall space and a lanai she had initially looked at in 2001 when trying to save Quiet Storm. In town for an April Get Fresh! gig, Harvey saw the space and agreed to partner with Khoie on rent, improvements and gathering finances. Khoie camped out in the Small Business Resource Center through May and June taking classes, attending seminars and putting together a business plan.
Thirtyninehotel (the gallery's address) opened its doors Aug. 7 with a revival of Quiet Storm, and boldly optimistic plans from its co-creators.
"I think there's something very punk rock about it being on Hotel Street. It's 'Come if you dare!' you know?" said Khoie. "I feel that people who are afraid of Hotel Street are not very adventurous. And I think you have to be adventurous to be interested in something like this.
"My target market is a group of unafraid, adventurous, exciting and forward-thinking young artists. People who are dying for a bit of SoHo ... a bit of an urban experience that you don't get in a lot of places."
Khoie isn't expecting quick success. But she does want artists to know that she plans to be around for a while and wants to chat about their art.
"Basically, it's a tabula rasa," said Khoie, of thirtyninehotel. "It's an empty white space for a variety of people to paint their impressions on."
Quiet Storm is Khoie's night to slowly nurture to greatness again. But she wants other DJs, promoters, musicians, dancers and performance artists to determine what happens at thirtyninehotel Sunday through Friday. She wants bedroom DJs to hone their skills at daytime slots for cafÚ patrons. She invites dancers, yoga instructors or artists to hold afternoon workshops on the lanai. Artists interested in exhibiting their works should contact her.
Khoie wants good ideas, naturally. But, mostly, she just wants artists to come.
"I want them to come in droves! I want them to bang the door down!" said Khoie. "I want them to serenade me outside."
Reach Derek Paiva at 525-8005 or dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.
• • •
Thirtyninehotel is just one of the should-scope venues at tonight's free First Friday Downtown Gallery Walk. Here are others to rock your art world:
- J Salon, 1128 Nu'uanu Ave., Suite 103, 7-9 p.m. Fall/winter hairstyle collection unveiling, cocktails and beats from Niko, K-ing, Seeko and Chia.
- Atelier 4 Fine Art Gallery, Davies Pacific Center, 841 Bishop St., ground floor, 6-8 p.m. Paintings by Sandra Blazel, opening.
- Soullenz Gallery, 186 N. King St. (River and King streets, second floor). Paintings by Dieter Runge, opening.
- Studio 1, 1 N. King St. "Portrait of a Woman" photography by Christina Simpkins, opening.
- Louis Pohl Gallery, 1111 Nu'uanu Ave., 5-9 p.m. "Ho'okahi No Ka 'Aina A Me Na Kanaka: The Land and the People Are One," prints by Richard Palmer, paintings by Carl F.K. Pao.
- The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nu'uanu Ave. Ceramics exhibit from Hawaii Craftsmen and Raku Ho'olaule'a.
- Toshiko Takaezu Ceramics Studio at the YWCA, 1040 Richards St. "A Community-Wide Project: The Goblet Show."
- The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop St., 7-8:45 p.m. Works by Bumpei Akaji and "Post-Tattoo Works" by Kandi Everett, Don Ed Hardy and Michael Malone.
- Studio of Roy Venters, 1160 Nu'uanu Ave. "Labor of Love," new works by Venters.
... and Late Night
- Mercury Lounge, 1154 Fort Street Mall, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. "The Muse," live multimedia, music.
- Studio 1, 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Amber Ricci's Dragonfly band, DJs, body painting.
