Hawaiian Kapa
Name/Title
Hawaiian KapaEntry/Object ID
MK_0003Description
This exquisite piece is one of fourteen kapas created by renowned Hawaiian kapa artist Malia Solomon, commissioned by hotel founder Laurance Rockefeller in the mid-1960s, when he developed the hotel. Solomon utilized antique, undyed kapa, traditionally crafted from the bark of the Mulberry tree and estimated to be over 100 years old by the time Solomon acquired it. Employing natural vegetable and earth dyes, she stamped the cloth with distinctive sea urchin patterns in black pigments, crafting a stunning and historically accurate Hawaiian kapa design - a homage to this centuries-old Hawaiian art form. Decades later, in 2016, a member of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel collection team consulted Dr. Alice Christophe, Collections Manager for Ethnology at Honolulu's Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum regarding another round of stabilization and restoration of the original Rockefeller kapa collection. During the process, Dr. Christophe discovered a reference to a “small” kapa that the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel had previously sent to the museum’s (since closed) restoration arm, the Pacific Restoration Center (PRC). A fax from the 1980s was also uncovered, detailing a restoration quote that had never been responded to by the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, leaving the kapa untouched for decades. Folded away in a drawer at the PRC since the 1980s, the kapa remained in its original state for almost 30 years until 2016, when it became the first piece from the collection to be stabilized and restored.Made/Created
Artist
Malia SolomonDate made
circa 1965Place
State/Province
Hawai'iCountry
U.S.A.Continent
North AmericaDimensions
Height
60 inLength
90 inLocation
Area
7th Floor AtriumFloor
7th FloorBuilding
Main TowerMK-MKBH Warehouse