art@town's "Endless Possibilities" exhibit will be up until the end of March, featuring artists Mark Chai and Naomi Olsen.
Try to catch it before we take it down.
This is the first time an artist took the shadowboxes as "one" installation, instead of a stage for several pieces. Mark Chai's "Discovering the Aina" is unbelievable, I can sit and stare at it for hours.
The new sculpture “Discovering the ‘Āina” has been installed at town restaurant in Kaimuki for February and March. It pays homage to the Polynesian voyagers who first arrived in Hawai‘i as well as the modern day adventurers who make their own journeys of discovery. The installation transforms the 5 x 5 grid of foot-square boxes in the entrance of the popular eatery. Each perimeter box is filled with a blue plastic sheet, melted and manipulated with ocean currents and celestial constellations, reference points for the early navigators. The eight constellations represented are Makali‘i (the Pleiades), Heiheionākeiki (Orion), Hōkūle‘a (Arcturus), Hōkūpa‘a (Polaris), Nāmāhoe (Gemini), ‘Iwakeli‘i (Cassiopeia), Hānaiakamalama (the Southern Cross), and Nāhiku (the Big Dipper). Floating in this sea of ocean and sky are the islands. Carved stumps of wood culled from a fallen tree were cut in a way to mimic aerial views of shorelines as well as to show interesting patterns of the grain. Peer into the holes bored through the wood to find concealed places. Wood blocks from a salvaged beam were sculpted as surrealistic landscapes holding sacred pōhaku (rocks). These remind us of our own memories of discovery as we hike through the forests or along the coast and come upon remarkable geologic formations. Whether it be a lava tube, cave, crater or tide pool, these finds give us a sense of the hidden beauty and wonder of our island ‘āina (land).
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