Both are abstractions of the hand, a metaphor for the artist creating. Especially compelling is the pile of basalt stones in a large, perfect circle on the floor at the UH gallery, with five undulating mounds, representing the five fingers. At the East-West Center, his piece is a circle of 12 white segments, each representing a hand. Both are serene, evocative installations that invite contemplation. There are a fair number of other installations at the UH Art Gallery, an indication of how important this conceptual approach is to today's artist.
Mixed media prevail, with few of the artists doing conventional painting on canvas.
One outstanding exception merits mention, and that is the painting by Brendt Berger, a large unstretched canvas with overall patterning in red, blue and brown. At first sight abstractions, the patterns emerge as overlapping Hawaiian symbols of the kind that might decorate kapa or be petroglyph carvings. This use of ancient imagery as the basis for a contemporary composition succeeds in bearing homage to Hawaiian ancestry while remaining firmly in the mainstream of today's art. The paintings are on the inside of the kapa shelter, like decorations on a wall. About 80 Hawaiian girls and women between the ages of 2 and 91 contributed to this work by making paintings and helping quilt them together.