Maikaʻi Tubbs
Not Your Garden Variety
Inkjet on Wood
Ottoman Gallery

Artist Statement

One thing that struck me about the Ottoman Gallery was actually the least visually interesting thing in it: the ceiling. With so many decorative accents to take in, my wandering eye took a visual rest when walking into the smaller, adjacent room. Intricately carved and painted wood framed a large white square ceiling from which a simple pendant light could be seen. In a room so densely populated with ornamentation, it seemed incomplete. Upon hearing my interest, the Shangri La team informed me that the Syrian architectural elements of the room were purchased from New York and the missing ceiling component could be found there. I reached out to the Hagop Kevorkian Center for East Asian Studies at NYU and was granted access to the facilities. The lobby was reminiscent of Shangri La as custom ceramic tiles and hand-carved wood extended from the entrance and through the adjoining library. Overlooking the central fountain was a giant ceiling piece believed to be the missing section. I imagined one reason it may not have been acquired was that it was rectangular in shape, much larger than the square space available at the Oʻahu estate.

Not Your Garden Variety is a speculative illustration mashup of design elements from the original New York ceiling piece paired with those of native plants found on the grounds of Shangri La. These include the ʻākia, ʻukiʻuki and pāʻū o Hiʻiaka which reference Native Hawaiian practices of fishing, kapa dyeing and medicine. The piece brings together old and new motifs to reflect the modern melding of Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design into its local surroundings. Also included in the work is a depiction of the famous Phalaenopsis Doris, an orchid named after the late Doris Duke.

Maikaʻi Tubbs
Maikaʻi Tubbs utilizes found detritus to create sculptures, installations and drawings around themes of obsolescence, consumption and ecology. He regards discarded objects as untapped resources and transforms them to reveal a world of hidden, limitless potential. His process-oriented work reflects honest observations of unnatural familiarity influenced by the blurred boundaries between organic and artificial life. Tubbs’ long-standing interest in transformation has recently renewed his passion for drawing in the form of futuristic hybrids.

Tubbs is from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA in Painting from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and his MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design. His work has been shown nationally and internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Honolulu Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada, Landesmuseum Hannover and Google.