Fitness Court at Kahului Community Center Park - Coming Soon!
|
Through a new partnership with the Hawaii Medical Service Association and the National Fitness Campaign, whose mission is to build healthy communities, two outdoor Fitness Court installations are coming to the County of Maui in 2024. With a 224 square foot sheer wall backing the structures, each Fitness Court presents an opportunity for a public artwork that enhances and enriches the site while also addressing the public input received in our recent Maui County Public Art Community Survey to produce art that preserves local stories, environment and history.
Artist James Dinh has been selected to design a work of public art at the Kahului Community Center Park site that engages a diverse public audience and celebrates the site’s history, culture and sense of place. Bookmark this page for ongoing updates! |
View the Keōpūolani Regional Park artwork page HERE
|
James Dinh | www.studiofolia.com
|
Designing public art spaces that connect people to memory and place. This is the foundation of the work of Studiofolia, a flexible collaborative public art practice that James Dinh founded in 2010 in Los Angeles. With a background in landscape architecture and public health, James has completed projects in diverse communities across the U.S. Because the context and requirements of each project are different, his design process is based on an approach rather than a singular style.
For the Kahului Community Center Park project, James is collaborating with Thinh Nguyen, an illustrator and textile/surface pattern designer. Thinh emphasizes sustainability, craftsmanship, and community in this creative work. James and Thinh believe it is important to create art that welcomes people of all backgrounds and ages and, importantly, tells local stories. Both their families came to this country as refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. From these experiences, James and Thinh have learned about the power of resilience and the importance of telling unsung stories that, importantly, enrich the larger American narrative. |
Proposed Concept
Revised Concept
The community engagement process was crucial for my learning about the landscape, culture, and history that are specific to Kahului. The insights generously provided by the consultants piqued my curiosity to engage in further research into different topics that I would otherwise never have thought about. Sissy Lake-Farm demonstrated hula hand gestures, which were traced and incorporated into the mural artwork. Aunty Kekoa Enomoto noted that Kahului is hot and like a desert with its sand dunes. Importantly, she said that the existing Kanahā Pond was once part of two royal Hawaiian fishponds. This story led me to research this history and to include two ponds in the mural, as well as the native 'ama'ama or stripped mullet fish. A culturally important fish, the species is a staple of fishpond cultivation. Kauwela Bisquera noted that the color palette of the artwork, to her, captures the feel of Kahului in general and Kahului Community Center Park specifically. Art Vento reiterated that sand dunes once covered Kahului. This observation guided me further to include in the mural plants that are endemic to this unique environment. In response to a suggestion by Mary Kielty, the 'iwa or great frigate bird is incorporated in artwork. The bird is native to Hawaii and has a recognizably distinctive tail and wide wingspan. In addition to the live meetings with the community consultants, I also watched a past interview with Tamara Sherrill, the Executive Director of the Maui Nui Botanical Garden. She noted some plants that are unique to the sandy landscape, such as naupaka kahakai and pōhuehue (beach morning glory). The plants' distinctive flowers were incorporated into the mural. READ MORE
Artist statement: The overall theme of the mural is the deep attachment that Hawaiians have to the land and nature. The wave-like, weaving forms of the artwork express an interconnectedness between the various elements of the landscape, of which humans are an inseparable part. The mural celebrates the flora and fauna that are unique to Kahului and Hawaii, such as the 'iwa bird, the 'ama'ama fish, and the naupaka kahakai and pōhuehue plants which grow only in sandy environments such as that found in Kahului. The two bodies of water shown in the mural allude to the two royal Hawaiian fish ponds that once existed in Kahului. 'Ama'ama fish, a staple of fishpond cultivation, are shown swimming in these ponds. Overlaid on this sweeping landscape are traces of hula hand gestures, which further reinforce the theme of the connection between people and land. Aside from being a dance and a form of storytelling, hula is a practice through which Hawaiians connect with the natural world and ancestral wisdom. Shown on the mural are hand gestures that convey and symbolize sacredness/ancestors, land, and flowers.
Inspired by ‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Hānau ka ‘āina, hānau ke ali‘i, hānau ke kanaka (Born was the land, born were the chiefs, born were the common people)
Artist statement: The overall theme of the mural is the deep attachment that Hawaiians have to the land and nature. The wave-like, weaving forms of the artwork express an interconnectedness between the various elements of the landscape, of which humans are an inseparable part. The mural celebrates the flora and fauna that are unique to Kahului and Hawaii, such as the 'iwa bird, the 'ama'ama fish, and the naupaka kahakai and pōhuehue plants which grow only in sandy environments such as that found in Kahului. The two bodies of water shown in the mural allude to the two royal Hawaiian fish ponds that once existed in Kahului. 'Ama'ama fish, a staple of fishpond cultivation, are shown swimming in these ponds. Overlaid on this sweeping landscape are traces of hula hand gestures, which further reinforce the theme of the connection between people and land. Aside from being a dance and a form of storytelling, hula is a practice through which Hawaiians connect with the natural world and ancestral wisdom. Shown on the mural are hand gestures that convey and symbolize sacredness/ancestors, land, and flowers.
Inspired by ‘Ōlelo No‘eau: Hānau ka ‘āina, hānau ke ali‘i, hānau ke kanaka (Born was the land, born were the chiefs, born were the common people)
Community Consultations
Community consultation with Mary Kielty
|
Community Consultation with Art Vento
|
Community Consultation with Kauwela Bisquera
|
Community Consultation with Aunty Kekoa Enomoto
|
‘Ōlelo No‘eau meeting with Sissy Lake-Farm
|
Project Timeline
|
|
