ʻ Ōpua maka ʻupena
ʻ Ōpua maka ʻupena

Acrylic Polymer

2024

For the Sense of Place / Place of Sense, exhibition at the Schaeffer Gallery, Maui Arts & Cultural Center

This net pattern is my interpretation of ʻōpua maka ʻupena, cirro-cumulus clouds, based on my observations of this type of cloud formation on Molokaʻi this past year. The clouds play a significant role in the water cycle in the islands. In the days of old these observations in the sky, were signs of change in the weather ahead, among other possible spiritual interpretations. This mural serves to be sign of whats to come and a reflection of the drastic and fast changing Hawaiʻi that I have observed within my own lifetime.

Image courtesy of Maui Arts & Cultural Center, photograph by J. Anthony Martinez

Laukanaka
Laukanaka

Aerosol and Latex

2019

Laukanaka is a site-specific installation and new commission, which welcomes visitors into the HUB. Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum’s patterns reflect the bold, powerful, complexities of Pacific design, which mimic elements found in the natural world. As a prolific muralist and a student of traditional Hawaiian tattoo or kākau, he is interested in the power of pattern as tool for visual communication and a language understood by all living things – humans, animals and plants.

Taum's mural is inspired by the words of his mentor and fellow HB19 artist, ‘Īmaikalani Kalāhele. His heavy use of black references Kalāhele's urge for us to look back and return to the source that is Pō, night or darkness, to understand how to best move forward for the health of both the land and people native to this land. The pair of dancing bird forms represent the Manu o Kū, commonly known as “fairy terns,” one of the few remaining native bird species to live and thrive in urban Honolulu. These birds remind Taum of his many ancestors who lived from Waikiki to Honolulu since the 1800s and the great changes that have occurred in his Kulāiwi (both the birthplace and resting place of his ancestors’ bones) in such a short period since their lifetimes. The asymmetric composition is intended to illustrate this feeling of dramatic movement and change. Geometric motifs represent different native flora such as Kalo (taro), a staple of the Native Hawaiian-diet and an older-sibling to the first man, according to the Kumulipo, the cosmogonic genealogical creation chant. Prior to urbanization and widespread water diversion, Kalo was once widely cultivated from Honolulu to Waikīkī, fed by natural water systems that once flowed from mauka to makai, from the mountains to the sea.

Laukanaka is a play on the Hawaiian words lau meaning the leaves of a plant or multiple/many, and kanaka referring to people. The title refers both to Oʻahu’s overpopulation as well as the growing and strengthening of the lāhui (the Hawaiian nation).

Beneath Concrete
Beneath Concrete

Aerosol and CMU brick

2019

Cory Kamehanaokalā Taum’s commissioned work, Beneath Concrete (2019), consists of hundreds of spray-painted concrete blocks assembled into an exhibition foundation atop the pre-existing concrete surface of the museum gallery floor. This tiled floor ornamentation draws upon the artist’s skills honed, and knowledge of kākau (tattooing) passed on to him, under the tutelage of expert tattooist Suluʻape Keone Nunes. Taum incorporated Polynesian genealogical approaches to tattooing—in which patterns are inscribed on bodies as marks of resilience, descent, and collectivity—into the material of the commission. Additionally, the artist’s surface treatment and the pattern and process by which he arranged the blocks is also a direct response to Piliāmoʻo and Vea’s contributions to the exhibition and builds from the ground up.

Visitors passing through the space must come into physical contact with the material of the commission in order to experience the other works in the exhibition. In this sense, the work helps to evoke the feel, smell, sound, and look of concrete realities. In keeping with this situated and sensorial experience, each concrete block was spray-painted on the grounds of the Hessel Museum of Art and placed within the gallery through a process of shared and non-remunerated labor. Taum worked alongside a group assembled from current first and second-year students, faculty, and staff at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) who individually responded to a call for collaboration.

-Drew Kahuaina Broderick

Lau Ama’uma’u
Lau Ama’uma’u

Aerosol on plywood

2022

Lau Ama’uma’u is my tribute to the Ama’uma’u fern that would be used as the final trimming on the traditional thatched Hawaiian Hale. After thatching the hale with Pili grass, dry Ama’u fern leaves would be collected from the mountains for the final trimming. The leaves would be split in half and joined together before being secured to the ridge of the Hale. I have been taught that our ancestors chose this plant form because it serves as a spiritual “Pale” or shield over the Hale. For myself this fern is a physical body form of our Akua, Kamapua’a, whose story inspired my own path in discovering how to channel my creative forces to create beauty out of decay.

ʻ Ōpua maka ʻupena
Laukanaka
Beneath Concrete
Lau Ama’uma’u
ʻ Ōpua maka ʻupena

Acrylic Polymer

2024

For the Sense of Place / Place of Sense, exhibition at the Schaeffer Gallery, Maui Arts & Cultural Center

This net pattern is my interpretation of ʻōpua maka ʻupena, cirro-cumulus clouds, based on my observations of this type of cloud formation on Molokaʻi this past year. The clouds play a significant role in the water cycle in the islands. In the days of old these observations in the sky, were signs of change in the weather ahead, among other possible spiritual interpretations. This mural serves to be sign of whats to come and a reflection of the drastic and fast changing Hawaiʻi that I have observed within my own lifetime.

Image courtesy of Maui Arts & Cultural Center, photograph by J. Anthony Martinez

Laukanaka

Aerosol and Latex

2019

Laukanaka is a site-specific installation and new commission, which welcomes visitors into the HUB. Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum’s patterns reflect the bold, powerful, complexities of Pacific design, which mimic elements found in the natural world. As a prolific muralist and a student of traditional Hawaiian tattoo or kākau, he is interested in the power of pattern as tool for visual communication and a language understood by all living things – humans, animals and plants.

Taum's mural is inspired by the words of his mentor and fellow HB19 artist, ‘Īmaikalani Kalāhele. His heavy use of black references Kalāhele's urge for us to look back and return to the source that is Pō, night or darkness, to understand how to best move forward for the health of both the land and people native to this land. The pair of dancing bird forms represent the Manu o Kū, commonly known as “fairy terns,” one of the few remaining native bird species to live and thrive in urban Honolulu. These birds remind Taum of his many ancestors who lived from Waikiki to Honolulu since the 1800s and the great changes that have occurred in his Kulāiwi (both the birthplace and resting place of his ancestors’ bones) in such a short period since their lifetimes. The asymmetric composition is intended to illustrate this feeling of dramatic movement and change. Geometric motifs represent different native flora such as Kalo (taro), a staple of the Native Hawaiian-diet and an older-sibling to the first man, according to the Kumulipo, the cosmogonic genealogical creation chant. Prior to urbanization and widespread water diversion, Kalo was once widely cultivated from Honolulu to Waikīkī, fed by natural water systems that once flowed from mauka to makai, from the mountains to the sea.

Laukanaka is a play on the Hawaiian words lau meaning the leaves of a plant or multiple/many, and kanaka referring to people. The title refers both to Oʻahu’s overpopulation as well as the growing and strengthening of the lāhui (the Hawaiian nation).

Beneath Concrete

Aerosol and CMU brick

2019

Cory Kamehanaokalā Taum’s commissioned work, Beneath Concrete (2019), consists of hundreds of spray-painted concrete blocks assembled into an exhibition foundation atop the pre-existing concrete surface of the museum gallery floor. This tiled floor ornamentation draws upon the artist’s skills honed, and knowledge of kākau (tattooing) passed on to him, under the tutelage of expert tattooist Suluʻape Keone Nunes. Taum incorporated Polynesian genealogical approaches to tattooing—in which patterns are inscribed on bodies as marks of resilience, descent, and collectivity—into the material of the commission. Additionally, the artist’s surface treatment and the pattern and process by which he arranged the blocks is also a direct response to Piliāmoʻo and Vea’s contributions to the exhibition and builds from the ground up.

Visitors passing through the space must come into physical contact with the material of the commission in order to experience the other works in the exhibition. In this sense, the work helps to evoke the feel, smell, sound, and look of concrete realities. In keeping with this situated and sensorial experience, each concrete block was spray-painted on the grounds of the Hessel Museum of Art and placed within the gallery through a process of shared and non-remunerated labor. Taum worked alongside a group assembled from current first and second-year students, faculty, and staff at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) who individually responded to a call for collaboration.

-Drew Kahuaina Broderick

Lau Ama’uma’u

Aerosol on plywood

2022

Lau Ama’uma’u is my tribute to the Ama’uma’u fern that would be used as the final trimming on the traditional thatched Hawaiian Hale. After thatching the hale with Pili grass, dry Ama’u fern leaves would be collected from the mountains for the final trimming. The leaves would be split in half and joined together before being secured to the ridge of the Hale. I have been taught that our ancestors chose this plant form because it serves as a spiritual “Pale” or shield over the Hale. For myself this fern is a physical body form of our Akua, Kamapua’a, whose story inspired my own path in discovering how to channel my creative forces to create beauty out of decay.

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