This Moment
With THIS MOMENT passing, the “now” is everything we think, feel and experience through a series of points pieced together, connecting the future and past. THIS MOMENT is a collection of works that document, honor, arrange and link these flashes of time, lending them gravity and allowing us to ponder whether time is an illusion. THIS MOMENT brings together three Hawaiʻi artists, Noah Harders, Kenyatta Kelechi and Lauren Shearer, who share contemporary reworkings of historic techniques ranging from lei to photography.
Noah Harders, a floral artist from Maui, uses petals, leaves and lichens to make wearable art that is part mythology, part haute couture. Living in Waikapū, alongside his family that has called this part of Maui home for generations, Noah creates a surrealist fantasy using flowers found near his home, or leftover from high-end weddings. Once these wondrous, floral pieces are completed, with the artist noting Steve McQueen and the film Avatar as points of inspiration, they are documented during that moment of perfection and then observed through their next phase: organic deterioration. Debuting in THIS MOMENT are portraits by the artist that previously were intended to only live in the virtual realm of social media, printed and exhibited for the first time with the intention to capture the perpetual energy culminated through process.
Kenyatta Kelechi chooses the material nature of photography as his primary subject. Known for his distinctive portraits that utilize a 19th century method of wet plate collodion, known as “ambrotype” or “tintype,” the resulting photographs are free of control and truly a celebration of the chemical reactions taking place, ensuring every photograph is distinct. Kelechi, who is based on Oʻahu, creates work that is in direct dialogue with the history of photography in Hawaiʻi, using the same wet plate process from the 1800s. In THIS MOMENT, Kelechi is exhibiting work from his ongoing series of portraits documenting key figures in Hawaiʻi, embedded in relationships with his subjects, place and community.
Maui floral artist Lauren Shearer’s practice is focused on the realization that almost all flora and fauna that surround us can be used to make lei and dried, floral installations that link time and space. Moving beyond working with standard lei flowers, she has developed a process that pays homage to tradition of the craft, offering her own, contemporary take, which are often dried into installations. Her relationship to nature and the Japanese art of wabi sabi, which celebrates imperfection, are key inspiration points for the artist. Working with endemic, native and introduced flora on Maui, Shearer highlights the fragile ecosystem of Hawaiʻi. For IN THIS MOMENT, Shearer will be exhibiting a dried, lei installation.
This Moment
June 11- August 13, 2021
Noah Harders | Kenyatta Kelechi | Lauren Shearer
Lau Building, 184 Kamehameha Ave, Suite 190A
Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720
O‘ahu programming will be announced later this month.
The Artists
Noah Harders
Noah Harders was born and raised in Waikapū where he lives on land inhabited by his ancestors for hundreds of years. Having attended the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Noah returned home to create wearable art made of flowers, leaves and other found organic materials. Noah describes his growth as an artist spanning multiple practices including installations and photography as a “crazy progression of finding myself”. His technical skill in fabricating wearable pieces is fully revealed in his expressive self portraits shot in his home studio drawing us all into his surrealist fantasy.
Kenyatta Kelechi
Kenyatta Kelechi was born and raised in a highly photogenic place: Kailua, Oʻahu. Yet his art practice turns our attention away from landscapes, seascapes, or people. Kenyatta, instead, chooses the material nature of photography itself as his subject. To do this he capitalizes on the side effects of chemically based photographic processes––finding striking compositions amongst material separations and chemical reactions that are typically the bane of representational photography. Relinquishing the need for total control and collaborating with process. The artist is currently meddling with the nineteenth-century method of wet plate collodion, or what is commonly referred to as “tintype” photography. Kenyatta received his BFA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2016. He can still be found there in the photography lab, assisting students, and mixing chemicals.
Lauren Shearer
Lauren Shearer was born and raised on Maui, where she grew up surrounded by Hawaii’s floral backdrop and rich culture, practicing the tradition of lei making. However, once she realized that almost all flowers, plants, and animals that surround us can be used to make lei, she began to experiment and has not stopped. By moving beyond the comfort zone of standard lei flowers, she has discovered a process that both pays homage to tradition of the craft and also creates a modern vision for lei. Lauren’s mission is to create awareness of the natural world around us, wherever we go. This has led to the creation of a custom lei making business, in which she draws inspiration from surrounding flora and fauna in all stages of development to create wearable art.