Kitchen Art in Maui
No actual kitchens today – I am on vacation, after all. But I couldn’t resist a visit to “Exhibition Kitchen: The Art Show” at the Hui No’Eau Visual Arts Center just outside Makawao in lovely upcountry Maui.
Whisk-ito by Jon Wilson III
The exhibition is a juried selection of works by local artists using only kitchen items. Like these creatures, created by John Wilson III from kitchen tools. Imple-sectis reminds me of Tash, the god of the Calormen in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books – but that’s probably just me:
Imple-sectls by John Wilson III
This chandlier by Bill Hanke is almost Maurer-esque:
Percolighter by Bill Hanke
And “Diaspora” by Gabrielle Anderman is a beautiful curtain of silver – and thought provoking. The items of cutlery are gathered from different countries, and represent the movement of people from their original lands:
Diaspora by Gabrielle Anderman
Of course, one of the thoughts that it provoked for me is what would happen if I wanted to buy the work? Would I get a box of silverware and a set of instructions, or is the wall part of the deal?
“Everybody has one” by Peter Hansen provokes thoughts along the lines of “what is art, anyway?” Good to know that the ubiquitous kitchen junk drawer can be – I feel much better about mine now:
Everybody Has One by Peter Hansen
I didn’t capture the details of this particular artwork – I was concentrating on the beautiful profusion outside the window:
The art of nature
However beautiful, all the art at the Hui has a hard time competing with the beauty of the natural surroundings and sweeping views at Kaluanui, the now restored 1917 house and estate of Harry and Ethel Baldwin. It would be worth a visit for the gardens alone, with mature plants and the biggest Norfolk Island Pines I’ve ever seen. Ethel was something of an artist herself:
Kaluanui Study by Ethel Baldwin
The Kaluanui Estate makes me slightly uncomfortable to see how the families descended from the first missionaries to Maui ended up owning nearly all the land and living in absolute luxury, while the people the missions were supposed to serve continued in relative poverty and loss of freedom. Not that life in ancient Polynesia was a bed of roses, of course, what with slavery, kapu, war and human sacrifice – but surely dynastic fortunes weren’t what missionaries were supposed to achieve?
