Hamilton Library gallery featuring exciting exhibits this semester

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Teri L. Skillman-Kashyap, (808) 956-8688
Events & Communications Coordinator, Library Services
Posted: Feb 27, 2012

Elevator Gallery
Elevator Gallery
Ka Leo “9d” exhibit
Ka Leo “9d” exhibit
UH Mānoa's Hamilton Library gallery spaces are filled with exciting exhibits this semester and all of them are free and open to the public during building hours.
 
Ka Leo ~ 9d
Hamilton Bridge Gallery
The University of Hawai`i at Mānoa student newspaper celebrates its 90th anniversary with a multi-media exhibit at Hamilton Library’s bridge gallery that depicts highlights from the past ninety years.
 
Curated by UH Mānoa graduates (Erica Lenentine, BA-Art, 2011, and Chad Kikuchi, BA-Art, 2010), “Ka Leo 9d” asks viewers to tweet their responses to six questions scattered through the show and inspired by the content. “When should student journalists put limits on their free press rights?” was prompted by comics and satire that outraged some in the UH community who thought Ka Leo’s cartoonists and writers had gone too far. Some of those cartoons are on display and shielded by an opaque American flag with the First Amendment stenciled upon the white stripes. By opening the flag, people can answer the question.
 
Ka Leo has had 104 editors in its 90 years and many of those have gone onto careers for national and local newspapers and magazines and television stations. Front pages from the decades are displayed, along with touch-screen access to the website, kaleo.org, which provides a link to an exhibit slide show.
 
Throughout Ka Leo’s ninety years, students have made all content decisions. Curators Lenetine and Kikuchi wanted to engage people in a discussion about those decisions. Cartoons from the past were blown up and printed on vinyl stickers applied to the floor. Ka Leo staffer and Academy for Creative Media student Shinichi Toyama produced a 10-minute documentary about the production of the newspaper’s “Nightlife Guide.” The repeating video includes interviews with editor Will Caron and other staffers, who explain the process for producing the special issue.
 
Other exhibit sections include: Opinions, Sports, Hawaiʻi News and World, Advertising, Campus Controversy that looks at crime, Proceed with Caution (that depicts swimsuit issues from the past), and the Right to Be, which shares one of the most controversial issues covered by the paper. In 1990, Joey Carter, a Caucasian student, wrote a commentary for the paper in which he objected to being called haole. UH Professor Haunani-Kay Trask wrote a response that generated a year-long struggle over free speech and Native Hawaiian rights. Many of those stories will be available as PDFs in February when the exhibit provides a QR code that will guide smart phones to a URL where the PDFs will be loaded.
 
Common People, Common Places
Hamilton Elevator Gallery
Photographs by Maseeh Ganjali
 
There are people in this world who might never be photographed, people you may never see, nor hear of. Nevertheless they, like you, have special lives and riveting stories. These photographs are of everyday people, people who are more like you than you might think. They cry, laugh, dream, and feel the same emotions as you do. They are special too and deserve fair representation. The goal of this exhibit is to provide a perspective into a different place; a perspective that is rarely available and accessible here. The exhibit provides glimpses of a people who are often misrepresented and misunderstood. This exhibition is not the final goal, but only one step in a long journey for creating communication and understanding between people who have been separated by political and cultural differences.
 
Hawai‘i Ku Like Kākou: A Community Mural Project
Hamilton CLIC Lab Gallery
 
This 10 ft. by 64 ft. mural began on Monday, October 3, 2011, with a simple gathering and prayers requesting insight and guidance from our ancestors. Five kumu, six alaka‘i and seventeen haumana (ages 12-19) faced eight large panes waiting to receive “new old wisdoms” from our indigenous collective.
 
The weeks prior to painting the mural, the kumu had been preparing through individual and group work to represent indigenous economies and communities through native Hawaiian symbols and metaphor. Layers and layers of ketches, color, metaphor, images and stories were added to the mural, offering insights into a Hawaiian view of ways to be “in exchange” with the gods, nature and each other.
 
More than twelve hundred hours were spent on the mural over seven days. By Wednesday, October 12, the mural, a gift from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, was installed at the Hawai‘i Convention Center as the first piece of Native Hawaiian art on display in this public space.
 
Through metaphor and symbolism the Hawai’i Kakou community mural invites conversation about re-learning how to work together through trust, relationships and common purpose. New Old Wisdom (NOW) asks us to work together at our deepest, most selfless level, to be mindful of generations yet to come, as those generations before us considered our needs.
  
Artists: Kahi Ching, Solomon Enos, Al Lagunero, Meleana Meyer (Po‘o), Harinani Orme
 
Samoan Siapo
Sci-Tech Commons
 
In 2009 Hamilton Library received a donation of an original Samoan Siapo created by Mary Pritchard from Joan Griffis of Oregon. Siapo, often referred to as tapa, is a traditional mulberry bark cloth from Samoa. Siapo has formal and functional uses from ceremonial gifts to bed covers. Though there are minor differences in the way each Pacific Island culture produces tapa, the general process is much the same: mulberry tree bark is stripped from branches, made into a large cloth, then decorated with traditional patterns using natural dyes. The symbols which are most commonly used in Samoan siapo are stylized representations of nature and everyday objects. Each of these elements are arranged in any and all combinations, making each siapo as unique as the artist.
 
The siapo now resides in the Science & Technology Commons Area of Hamilton Library. This year the Le Fetuao Samoan Language School of Honolulu donated a display explaining siapo, which now stands next to Mary Pritchard’s original. The display was made under the direction of Sauileoge "Sau" Ueligitone, a native of Tau, Manu'a, American Samoa and a friend of Mary Pritchard. He worked closely with her in the American Samoa Arts Council’s Cultural Preservation Programs. He is dedicated to perpetuating her work with younger generations, especially those who live outside of Samoa. In this effort, Sau volunteers at the Le Fetuao Samoan Language School and teaches both children and adults the art of siapo making.
At the age of 8, Sau described himself as an artist and has dedicated his life to the Arts since. He holds a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, with an emphasis on Graphic Design and Illustration. Samoan culture, history, legends, and physical environment are central features of Sau's art. Tapa (siapo) and tattoo motifs are featured in most of his recent work. The basic designs depict the Samoan way of life and include: fishing, farming, and dwellings. Some motifs show things that endanger life, i.e. centipedes and spearheads.
 
Sau has worked as an art instructor in American Samoa's public and private schools. He served as American Samoa Artist-in-Residence, Coordinator of Folk Arts for the American Samoa Museum and as Arts Council Member. Sau conducted art workshops for University of the South Pacific Extension campus in the Cook Islands and, multiple projects for the South Pacific Commission, a 27-nation regional organization, based in New Caledonia.
 
Upcoming Summer Exhibits include: Hawaiian FernsJust Paddle! and Indian Comics ~ Legends in Print
 
For information on Hamilton Gallery and Library events, contact Teri Skillman at 956-8688 or skillman@hawaii.edu

For more information, visit: http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/hours.html