Product Description
Mini Prints are a signed, open edition printed on archival paper. *Limited Edition Giclees are available in Medium on a archival paper (shipped flat) and in Large and Extra Large on canvas (shipped rolled). (*500 print edition in each size, plus 50 artist’s proofs and 50 printer’s proofs)
In Hawaii, dance and the accompanying “mele”, or chants, were refined into a form that reflected various aspects of Hawaiian social and cultural trends. Both art forms were illustrative and encompassed many topics. The Hawaiian people had little in the way of two dimensional art an most cultural expressions were focused into these two venues. They both become beautifully eloquent and held the essence of what it was to be Hawaiian. Attempts to ban hula by American missionaries failed to suppress something so essentially Hawaiian and today both the hula and the melee enjoy a renewed popularity.
The image “Chant in the Forest” is from a performance held in 1988 at Volcano National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. The unusual site is the traditional hula platform built in the young grove of rare native koa trees near the caldera’s edge. Depicted are two of Hawaii’s living treasures, Nalani and Pua Kanaka’ole. Nalani and Pua are the daughters of one of the Island’s most respected “kumu hula” (hula teacher), Edith Kehuikuhipuuoneonaaliiokohala Kenao Kanakaole. Edith founded and directed the Big Island hula school, Kalai O Kekuhi, unit her death, at which point the two sisters joined together to continue their mother’s legacy. Today, Halau O ekuhi is considered to be one of the most traditional halaus in the Islands. They hold their home to be at Kilauea Volcano and the sisters claim ancestry with Pele herself. Those who know them hardly doubt it.
