Bishop Museum Kupuna Series Lecture on March 15
Bishop Museum launches its four-part Kupuna Series Lecture on March 15 with a panel presentation on Native Hawaiian, American Indian, and Alaskan Native contemporary art. The artists, whose works are currently on view in the Bishop Museum Vestibule Gallery exhibition Pa‘a Ka La‘a Animism and Totemism: Contemporary Expressions from an Indigenous Mind, will discuss the exhibit, their contributions, and what motivates and moves them as artists.
The lecture will be presented from 6 to 8 p.m. on March 15 in Atherton Halau on the grounds of Bishop Museum and will include a tour of the exhibition. Admission is $5 (Museum members are free.) Seating is offered on a first-come, first served basis.
Artists participating in the panel discussion include the exhibit‘s curators Lucia Tarallo Jensen and Natalie Mahina Jensen-Oomittuk, as well as artists David Kalama Jr. (Hawaiian); Phillip Aarnaquq Charette (Inupiaq), and Othniel “Art” Oomittuk (Inupiaq).
The invitational exhibition is curated and presented by the Hale Nauā III Society of Hawaiian Arts of Hilo, Hawaii, in celebration of their 30 th anniversary. It remains on view through April 22, 2007. With this exhibition, Hale Nauā III began a new journey into the world of traditional and conceptual contemporary art forms. The exhibition showcases over two-dozen native artists, including Native Hawaiians, as well as indigenous artists from across the North American continent.
Hale Nauā has reached across the Pacific to foster relationships with many of the nation‘s leading Native American artists, including Ed Archie Noisecat (Shuswap/Stlitlimx) and Phillip Aarnaquq Charette (Inupiaq). According to Directors Rocky and Lucia Jensen, the exhibition will powerfully illustrate the influences that Animism and Totemism, which are fundamental beliefs of all First Nation People, have on artistic expression. The exhibition also includes rare ‘aumakua images from the Bishop Museum‘s own unrivaled collection.
Pa‘a Ka La‘a honors artist Leialoha Kanahele, who has been a member of Hale Nauā III since 1976. Maui-born, Leialoha Kanahele is a descendent of Ali‘i Nui Kahekilinui‘ahumanu and Kahuna Nui Hewahewa. She received her formal training at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. With Hale Nauā III for thirty years, Kanahele has contributed to hundreds of exhibitions, in the islands and abroad. She has remained steadfast in the pursuit of making others aware of the esoteric meaning of her homeland.
Her surreal landscapes of the Ko‘olau Mountains evoke the time-honored indigenous traditions that all things have soul. Kanahele‘s paintings are in the collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the world. At 80, Kanahele is perhaps the organization‘s most esteemed member. She is currently on a quest to document sacred sites throughout Hawai‘i.
The Kupuna Series Lecture project is funded through the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program. For more information, email Rona Rodenhurst rona.rodenhurst@bishopmuseum.org.
For more information about Pa‘a Ka La‘a or Bishop Museum‘s Kupuna Series Lecture, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
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