HI SOCIETY | The ArTs
Above: Shown is one of the copper panels by Satoru Abe that form the untitled railing on the side of the glass “pool.”
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hildren who spot doug Young’s pool at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum immediately want to step into it. “They’re intrigued and try to swim in it. They lie on their backs and start moving their arms,” quips the artist, noting that the “water” in mention is really enamel on glass. The trompe l’oeil “pool,” dubbed “Waikui,” is the heart of HiSAM’s sculpture garden, which comprises 10 works by Hawai‘i artists, including three new site-specific works commissioned by the State Foundation of Culture & the Arts (SFCA). The work replaces the actual pool that was part of the 1927 Armed Forces YMCA building that was acquired by the state in 2000 to house the foundation and museum. Planning for a garden that would replace the historic pool began at that time, when the pool sitting in the middle of the property was deemed a liability, according to SFCA O‘ahu commissioner Peter Rosegg. “There was no lifeguard. So, people could fall into it. And maintaining it was expensive. DAGS (the Department of Accounting and General Services), which operates the building, didn’t like it for all those reasons.”
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But he said museum planners liked the idea of replacing the pool with a piece of art that would evoke its essence and rekindle memories of kama‘aina who learned to swim in it through the YMCA over the years. Young, known for his photorealistic paintings, worked with a glass factory in Germany to come up with a work that people could walk on and touch. He overlapped imagery of a calm pool with ocean and sand to suggest the mingling of two waters and sought help from Hawaiian cultural experts in coming up with a name to convey this idea. “Waikui” turned out to be the name of an area near the northern tip of the Big Island that was once dominated by sandalwood and a stream that flowed through the forest to the ocean,” the artist shares. Alan Brown, a respected cultural expert, instructed Young to visit the site to determine whether it was pono to use the name. Once there, Young says, “It was electric, it was vibrating. It was something you don’t see every day. The light was just dazzling, and a small school of keiki fish was following me around as I walked in the water.” Now, when he sees people sitting around his artwork, he says,
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