PIKO Artwork Featured at Bishop Museum
Bishop Museum will present Mai Ka PIKO Mai: Gathering of Indigenous Artists October 26, 2007 , through April 6, 2008 , in the Joseph M. Long Gallery. The exhibition features over 40 pieces of contemporary art by indigenous artists throughout the Pacific Rim , the vast majority of which belongs to the indigenous art collection of the Keomailani Hanapi Foundation.
This exhibition addresses PIKO (navel or umbilical cord), in both the literal sense, as the source of the artwork, and in the figurative sense, as the source of inspiration and that which connects us to our ancestors, our landscape, and each other.
In June 2007, over 100 international indigenous artists gathered in Waimea, Hawai‘i, to individually and collectively create works of art. Entitled PIKO, the gathering included artists from American Indian tribes from Alaska, the Yukon, the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and the American Southwest as well as native artists from Hawai‘i, Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, the Torres Straits, Mauritius, Australia, and the Cooks Islands.
They represented various media: painting, drawing, printmaking, jewelry making, kapa making, featherwork, stone and wood carving, weaving and mixed media. In the process, artists seized opportunities to dialogue about common issues, strengths, and challenges they all face as indigenous artists and as indigenous peoples. During the week long event, participants expressed the importance of gatherings such as PIKO.
Sandy Adsett, Pahauwera Maori Artist, who is the Director of Toi Mairangi, School of Maori Art , brought a group of art students to “enjoy the art of creating and being part of a bigger family (of indigenous people). We want them to experience the enjoyment of being involved in indigenous cultural connections. Connections are doubly important because we are so far away,” said Adsett.
As First Peoples of the Americas engaged in applying tools to various media, one of their own, Dempsey-Bob, Tahltan-Tlinget, Wolf Clan, Master Artist observed that, “as we share knowledge, it makes us stronger. We try to lift up our art by sharing with other Pacific Rim peoples because it makes us see our culture better.”
Over 130 works of art were made during the five-day art making session. Over forty of these pieces will be featured in the Mai Ka PIKO Mai show. Says Kauanoelehua Chang, a Hawaiian watercolor artist and one of a team of people who put the show together, “These works not only reflect excellence in the application of art elements, they also reflect the achievements, hopes, dreams, and struggles of peoples connected by similar histories and culture.”
The Keomailani Hanapi Foundation (KHF) coordinated the PIKO gathering and is collaborating with Bishop Museum in the presentation of the Mai Ka PIKO Mai exhibit. Remarked Hiko‘ula Hanapi, President of KHF, “creative energy generated from many and varied creative minds brought together and manifested, is a powerful thing to see.” For more information about the exhibit, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
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