Wendy Kawabata - "Withdrawn from Circulation"

We had the pleasure of exhibiting Kawabata's Withdrawn from Circulation from November 5th through December 1st. The Hawaii-based artist's piece was constructed out of books pulled from circulation from Honolulu libraries, which Kawabata bought for a dollar a piece. The books are exaggeratedly dog-eared, their interiors becoming exposed and rearranged.

“The interior of a book is traditionally an individual and private experience,” the artist explains, “for these books….the private experience is no longer accessible. They have been quieted, now the barnacles growing on library walls as people move towards new ways of engaging with text”.

Kawabata’s interest in topics of interior and exterior mimic the underlying themes of Frame 301 so we were excited to exhibit this work in our storefront window which exits as a gateway between many public and private spheres.

(Kawabata received her BFA in Art History at Massachusetts College of Art and completed her MFA in Studio Art at the University of New Mexico. She is currently based in Honolulu, where she is an Assistant Professor with the department of Art and Art history with the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Kawabata has shown regularly over the last ten years in both group and solo shows nationally and has made public presentations a regular part of her exhibition process.)