EXHIBITION
Foreign Fruit
September 28 – October 9, 2015
Commons Gallery
Kelly Ciurej presents an exhibition of her recent photographs. Foreign Fruit serves as an interpretation of a generic touristic view of paradise, specifically around the symbolic nature of the pineapple. The pineapple represents her transition from Chicago, her place of origin, to her new home in Hawai‘i. Although they are typically mistaken for an indigenous fruit of the islands, pineapples are transplants, transferred to a new place with new roots grown over time.
The pineapple is connotatively sweet, a symbol of welcoming and “aloha,” yet it is simultaneously a hard, jagged entity, with exterior coarse points and rough edges. It promises warmth and comfort, but holds a suggestion of unease and threat, keeping a guard up as protection from its surroundings.
The photographs in Foreign Fruit explore the artist’s fragile relationship with her sense of self, place, identity, and the distinction between expectation and reality.
Ciurej is currently pursuing her MFA degree in photography at the Department of Art + Art History, UHM.
Gallery Hours / M-F 10 am – 4 pm; Sun. 12 – 4 pm
Closed Sat.
Admission to exhibition is free. Parking fees may apply.