UT Downtown Gallery
106 S. Gay Street
Knoxville, TN 37919
Hours: Wed-Fri 11-6, Sat 10-3, Free Admission.
Whoever said, “good things come in small packages” must have known about the International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibitions. If it follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, The 9th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibitionwill be one of the most popular exhibits for the young and young-at-heart alike. Dozens of small sculptures from around the world show how artists have handled the challenges of space and scale dictated by the size of an ordinary shoebox. An invitation-only exhibition, this triennial has attracted a large number of well-known artists from Hawai‘i, the U.S. mainland, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Norway, The Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
With a desire to see the work of sculptors from around the world, Mamoru Sato and Fred Roster, professors at the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa, developed the exhibition concept for The International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibitions. Because of the often large and awkward nature of sculpture, national and multi-national exhibitions are cumbersome and costly. Thus, the small format of these exhibitions, with the subsequent ease and economy of handling, provides broader exposure to contemporary sculpture. The first of the triennial Shoebox exhibitions was held in 1982.
As he reflected on the previous eight Shoebox Sculpture Exhibitions Tom Klobe, director of the UH Art Gallery stated, “The traveling Shoebox Exhibitions have generated an audience well beyond Hawaii’s shores. Museums and university galleries throughout the United States, Taiwan, Guam, Japan, Canada, and Mexico have presented the exhibitions and they continue to enthusiastically anticipate hosting the next.” Retiring at the end of June 2006, Klobe commented, “The artists have created a diverse group of sculptures. I hope that The 9th Shoebox will be just as inspiring and thought-provoking as its predecessors.”
Each sculpture speaks for itself. Some works are conceptual, some reflect the artist’s cultural heritage, and others are universal in expression. Collectively the sculptures are a powerful commentary on the state of humankind at the end of a century driven by industry and technology and at the beginning of a new millennium that is already marked with strife, uncertainties, and tragedies.
To create their sculptures, artists have used almost every imaginable medium. Cast metal, carved wood, blown glass, woven fiber, paper maché, molded clay, found objects, glass beads, feathers, and human hair have been components of Shoebox sculptures. Visitors can easily find more than one favorite work and some have been inspired to make their own small-scale sculptures.
Rather than consciously creating a beautiful artwork, Japanese artist Kazuo Kadonaga is interested in materials found in everyday life, and developing systems that transform these materials into new forms. With his sculpture Wood No. 11 CA, he shows that process can be the generator of form. He split a rectangular block of cedar into seven horizontal pieces. Although the pieces fit together well today, the sculpture will change over time as the wood slowly dries and warps. The artwork we see today will probably look different in a few months.
Ka Ho‘ina–The Returning by local artist Kazu Fukuda Kauinana celebrates the indigenous Hawaiian people as they gain strength through political unity, cultural awareness and appreciation, education, and by speaking their native language. Carved from koa wood with white seashells for eyes, Kauinana’s powerful female figure is reminiscent of traditional Hawaiian wooden sculpture. A coil of sennit lies in a circle around her feet.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Jeeun Kim contemplates and questions the nature of women. She asks, “To what degree is her nature a social construct built of the reflections, expectations, and demands of women and men around her?” Kim’s work, Woman, features three photo-like images of a young girl with several lines of text in Korean characters below on a piece of linen. Strung in the middle of a wood and Plexiglas box, the images and text seem suspended in time, space, and place.
German sculptor and architect Wlodek Stopa used feathers and wood to create his work entitled Dynamique Impossible that addresses the human wish—idealistic and difficult to realize—to fly. His roughly carved wagon reveals a hidden cache of fluffy white feathers.
Born in Maine but currently residing in Australia, Jeannie Mooney was inspired by the rainforest of Tasmania, home of the ancient Giant Eucalypt trees, in creating Shoes and Pillow (Valley of the Giants), a simple pair of house slippers that rest on top of a pillow. Using cloth and raw pigment as poetic metaphor, she finds deeper meaning and memory of the universe, nature, and humanity.
As if seared through the thickness of an old German book, a piece of clear, cast glass bordered by edges of charred pages reveals an image of a small key. A metal key matching the image dangles from a short chain trapped in the cast glass in The Key by Mexican artist Ana Thiel.
The work of E Chen invites viewers to see mechanical and mass-produced objects in a startling new way. Born in Taiwan, Chen uses a pair of athletic shoes and a plain tan box to create his sculpture, Roadside Monument. The tongue of one shoe sticks out of a hole on one side of the box, while the lining of the other shoe peeks out from a hole on another side of the box. Beside the protruding shoe parts, red and white shoelaces threaded through the box form a tidy row of x’s.
Attached with strips of leather and nails, a narrow piece of wood spans the interior length of a worn out soldier’s helmet and gives the thirty-year-old helmet another name and function—a bailing bucket commonly used in the Vietnamese countryside. With his work entitled, After War . . . Tran Ngoc Anh asks questions about the helmet’s past. “Who wore it? Where is he now? Is he dead or alive? How was it damaged?” Some viewers may ask, “What makes the helmet/bucket a work of art?”
Duane Paxson from Athens, Georgia takes twisted branches that show their struggle to reach sunlight and to survive and combines them with resin, fiberglass, and acrylic. Through the tortured forms, at the same time beautiful and compelling, he reveals nature’s primitive energy.
After the initial showing of The 9th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition at the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery, approximately 80 of the 121 sculptures will be selected for the traveling exhibition. Currently scheduled at 13 venues in the U.S., this traveling exhibition will conclude in October/November 2008. Previous Shoebox Sculpture exhibits organized by the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery were shown in Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, and Guam as well as the U.S. mainland.
