The remodeled centerpiece artwork at the state Capitol is being unveiled this week, a brighter version of the abstract sea blues and greens in the circular mosaic that has adorned the building for 40 years.

The “Aquarius” outdoor exhibit has been transformed from a crumbling, cracking tile mosaic to a $1.4 million waterproofed masterpiece that’s intended to look like new. It was cleaned yesterday after a tent shielding it from the elements during repairs came down Monday.
The mosaic, a meticulous recreation of Maui artist Tadashi Sato’s original work, represents submerged rocks as reflected through ocean water.
“Everybody who has visited Hawaii, they can appreciate the significance of the ocean in our daily lives, and that piece reminds us of that,” said Teri Freitas Gorman, Maui commissioner for the Hawaii State Foundation Cultural and the Arts.
The small-government Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has criticized spending of taxpayer money on an expensive art project at a time when the state is facing a $786 million budget shortfall.
“It looks beautiful, but ... you have to go back toward prioritizing what the state needs,” said Pearl Hahn, a policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute. “We need to look at our roads. They need repairs, and they’re causing traffic accidents. Why aren’t we repairing those?”
The 36-foot-diameter mosaic’s 6 million tiles were removed, and new ones were bought in Italy for assembly by a German company. Before his death in 2005, Sato chose the company, Franz Mayer of Munich, because he felt its plan best interpreted his original work.
The Hawaii-based general contractor on the project, Index Builders Inc., was awarded the project after it submitted the lowest bid.
The renovation replaced the old tiles, laid a waterproof foundation and installed a drainage system to remove water from the exhibit, which was originally completed in 1970. A replacement mosaic was installed in 1988 at a cost of $200,000, but it also failed to stand the test of time.
The state Legislature originally ordered the mosaic’s replacement in 2002. Most of its funding came from the state’s Works of Art Special Fund, which requires 1 percent of capital improvement appropriations be used for the acquisition and maintenance of works of art.