Featuring Artists:
Jake Boggs, Andrea Charuk, Jan Dickey, Jordan Harrison, Neilson Ishida, Alina Kawai, Laura Konecne, Kalani Largusa, Eric Ricky Allen Peters, Landon Tom, Lauren Trangmar, and Andrew Yamauchi.
Curated by: Erika Enomoto & Shulang Zou
#INTOVIEW
FLUX Magazine Blog Review by David A.M. Goldberg
Sense of selfie
An exhibition features works by emerging millennial artists, presented by emerging curators
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 08, 2015
Joel Stein’s Time magazine piece “The Me Me Me Generation” calls the millennial generation narcissistic, lazy and entitled. The piece has been derided on several websites, including thewire.com, where Elspeth Reeves counters some of Stein’s research with data she found in her article “Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation.”
So, in the age of selfies and branding oneself, are millennials narcissistic?
Emerging curators Erika Enomoto and Shulang Zou are presenting this question to the public with their exhibit “Into View: An Exhibition of ‘Narcissists,'” showing at Gallery ‘Iolani at Windward Community College through Feb. 27.
The show features 12 emerging artists born between the late ’70s and mid-’90s.
“Some didn’t want to be part of the exhibition,” said Enomoto. “They didn’t want to be lumped into the (narcissistic) category.” And yet, some artists said, “that describes me.”
Andrea Charuk, 29, whose piece “The Artist’s Attempt to Explore Reality” is in the show, said she doesn’t consider herself a narcissistic millennial.
“My brother is 25 and I look at his Instagram. … Their whole scene is a selfie,” said Charuk. She said she finds the incessant need to post selfies bizarre.
Yet, the young artist admits to some narcissism.
“Everyone is (narcissistic) to a certain extent,” she said. “Who doesn’t like to see a nice photograph of himself?”
Charuk thinks all artists are narcissists, too.
“I feel like, as an artist, it’s already easy to be seen as a narcissist because a lot of work you do doesn’t serve anybody; it sort of just exists,” Charuk said. “What art isn’t narcissistic?”
Charuk said she believes people unfairly judge her generation.
“The world is changing, and it’s a totally different world now. (The older generation doesn’t) realize that we just relate to the world differently than they do.”
She says if her generation is guilty of anything, it’s taking advantage of the capitalistic opportunities that technology affords them.
For herself, Charuk works vigilantly to not be viewed as narcissistic.
“I’m an art teacher, and I feel like that’s some kind of justification to even things out,” she said, explaining she uses art as a teaching tool.
Charuk’s piece, a set of six images of a nude woman, for instance, originated from a lesson with her third-grade class. As Charuk discussed the sculpture, she noticed her students coloring the nude woman’s body to make it more appropriate in their eyes, giving her the opportunity to discuss concepts of censorship.
Curator Enomoto said the show isn’t clear-cut about which works represent narcissism.
She and Zou tried to keep the tone of the exhibit neutral so visitors could make their own judgments.
“I think whether or not you’re in the millennial generation or know people (of the millennial generation), it’s a show worth seeing,” Enomoto said. “There’s something for everyone … It’s just nice to see what Hawaii’s future is capable of — the future of Hawaii’s art.”
Other artists in the show include Jake Boggs, Jan Dickey, Jordan Harrison, Neilson Ishida, Alina Kawai, Laura Konecne, Kalani Largusa, Eric Ricky Allen Peters, Landon Tom, Lauren Trangmar and Andrew Yamauchi.
