Hula
Kahiko Series
Original watercolors by Cindy Conklin © 2000
From
my first trips to Hawaii as a tourist twenty years ago, the ancient hula,
the hula Kahiko was a powerful experience. The language and symbolism
of the dance was the poetry and art of old Hawaii. Since the Hawaiians
had no two dimensional art which could express the complexity of their
culture, everything was poured into the hula which went beyond simple
expression ending as an art form which encompassed the entire human experience.
The
symbols and images I used in this watercolor painting on toned handmade
paper feature the male dancer who is the essence of power and strength
or the female dancer who embodies grace and beauty. Smaller figures
repeated along the sides and margins of the piece indicate other dancers,
male and female. Some are repeated in rows much as the dancers in a halau
would dance in unison.
Other
elements in the painting include petroglyphs of many kinds which are one
of the very few types of two dimensional art which remain from ancient
Hawaii. Some of the images are easy to interpret while others have
meanings which can only be guessed at. The petroglyphs were pecked
into smooth lava rock and took a long time to incise. Among the
easy to identify images are: fish, turtle, centipede and human figures
of various types. Many of these images are very much like those
found in Indian cultures throughout the Western U.S.
Another
element is the tattoo like geometric patterns. Tattoos which were
worn by both men and women and indicated rank and lineage. Designs
closely resembling tattoos also occurred on beaten tapa cloth, the beaten
bark fiber which Hawaiians used for clothing and shrouds. My very
restrained color scheme follows the limited palette which tapa artists
employed using natural dyes from plants for their work. Lastly,
the palm trees and leaves of various types are used to indicate the tropical
setting of the piece.