Art, Wine and Parallel Universes

The Honolulu Museum of Art had its monthly Art After Dark event Friday, April 28, with a theme centered on parallel universes.

The main exhibit of this month’s Art After Dark was Visual Artist Shahzia Sikander’s Parallax, which consisted of hundreds of hand-drawn images, converted to a digital format and translated into a three channel, single image audio-visual installation.

The sights and sounds of parallax are inspired by a journey Sikander took through the United Arab Emirates to show multiple senses of identity both personal and collective.

“All the sounds and visuals were really trippy and kind of scared me” said Samaiyah Alexander, 24, from California. “It was nice sometimes but when the mood got darker it was really off putting.”

Renowned artist Christopher Cole was also there to speak at an exhibition on his recent photos from his series “The Global South” that documents settlements on the margins of urban enters such as Kabul, Afghanistan; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Mexico City, Mexico.

Cole used a 1950’s 8×10 view camera with a specialized lens, which allowed him to capture the enormity of these settlements with a highly detailed wide angle.

“The beauty of my photos is that with the camera I used … since it’s not digital … no matter how large I print the detail never changes,” said Cole. “I don’t like to attach any kind of meaning to my work I simply take the photos and let the viewer establish meaning for themselves.”

“I thought his photos were really interesting,” said Aerin Swafford, 19, from Tennessee. “I could see more in one photo than I feel like I usually do in real life.”

Art After Dark is a party hosted by the Honolulu Museum of Art that takes place on the last Friday of the month, January through October, from 6 p..m. to 9 p.m. on the museum grounds.

This month, Virtual artist VJ Visual Cortex who gave a light show alongside DJ kuya’s musical styling’s turned the central courtyard into a lightshow art exhibition.

Food was provided by EAT Honolulu which supplied a lamb stew in their Savory eats menu as well as various vegetarian options.

Iichiko, a Japanese distilled spirits company, sponsored a membership contest that challenged participants to join or renew their membership to the museum for a chance to win one of three Iichiko Bar Bundles. Each winner also won four unlimited passes to the Honolulu Biennial. Participants were encouraged to decorate a birthday card at the door for the Honolulu Museum of Art’s birthday, which also happened to fall on the same day.

Between exhibits most After Dark participants enjoyed the months “Ocean Blu” specialty cocktail and took their time patrolling through the different art rooms.

Many event attendees spent their time wandering around the web room that was comprised of strings creating a man-made web.