(BIVN) – Artist Jacqueline Rush Lee’s exhibition, “Whorl”, is coming to the Hilo. The showing will be held at the East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center from April 6 to May 31. 

From an East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center news release:

Is the meaning of a book – a physical object consisting of ink, pages, and binding – static? Or does the narrative change with the passage of time, where the book is placed, and the impact of natural elements like weather and insect damage?

Artist Jacqueline Rush Lee invites viewers to consider these questions through her exhibition “Whorl,” on view at the East Hawai’i Cultural Center from April 6 to May 31, with an opening on April 5 at 6pm. A Hawai’i-based artist originally from Northern Ireland, Lee creates conceptual objects by sculpting books, inserting them into the cavities of trees, and allowing nature to warp and desiccate the pages. The result is eerily reminiscent of individual human fingerprints – the “Whorl” of the title – while at the same time suggesting cultural artifacts.

Site specific sculptures by Jacqueline Rush Lee. Photo courtesy of artist, Jacqueline Rush Lee.

Explains Lee, “I initiate chance occurrences by hand, hoping to create a meditation on the interconnectedness and precariousness of the relationship between nature and culture. Traces of the original text remain, but each object becomes a palimpsest – a document that bears remnants of its original text but which has been overwritten with a new narrative.”

Lee has exhibited widely, including at the Yale Art Gallery, the Fuller Craft Museum, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center, and the Hawai’i Contemporary Museum. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Fine Arts from the University of Hawai’i.

For more information, visit EHCC online at ehcc.org, call 961-5711, or visit EHCC at 141 Kalakaua Street. Current gallery and office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and the gallery is open Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.