"I will no longer remain silent" 2007

“I will no longer remain silent” 

After several years of grumbling around our dining room table about the war in Iraq: complaining about the lost lives, the erosion of our country’s reputation and the huge financial expense. I decided to speak up and do something visual and something personal, taping into my anger, my rage, my feelings about this war that was created by George Bush, based on lies and deception. I’ve always felt there has to be a better way to settle conflict in the world. The final straw was when the New York Times printed its third folio of thumbnail photos of the American troops killed in the war, each folio with the name and hometown of the soldier. Carefully, I scanned each photo and placed them on the stripes of a large American flag. Then I made a film of the faces dissolving into each other in progression and placed the film on a flat video screen where the flag’s stars would normally be seen.

I installed it all as a large wall hanging that concealed a sound system, which softly played Gorecki’s “Symphony of Sorrow no.3 .” I entered the work in “Art Maui 2008”. Hoping for exposure of my protest. Rejection followed. However, when my wife and her friend Tim Garcia heard of the news we all quickly mobilized and formed a group of “Artists for Peace”, inviting each to create their work of protest thereby forming an exhibition which was held in an abandoned gallery in Makawao. The show ran for a month and included works by 100 Maui artists. It quickly became known as “The miracle of Makawao” and was visited by thousands, including Maya Soetoro-ng, Barak Obama’s sister, Ram Dass and many veterans who had served in Iraq. "I will no longer remain silent" subsequently was chosen for display at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu as part of their special 20 year anniversary show "20 going on 21". I also received an award from the "United Nations Society of Artists and Writers" partially based on "I will no longer remain silent".

"The Little Red House" 1993

                              

The Little Red House

Conceptual Work

A small concrete building sat on the edge of a cliff at Turtle bay near Ho’okipa beach on Maui. The building was made out of concrete block. It was dirty and ugly until the day I decided to appropriate it and paint it bright red and put a chrome yellow flag on the pole next to it. I didn’t bother to notify the owner or seek his permission. I was thinking about the tradition of small brightly painted buildings I had seen in my travels around the world and the exploration of the subject in art and architecture history. For Art Maui in 1992 I decided to enter the concept of appropriation and a small photo… It was quickly rejected.

"Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors" 2009

Dolls in Bondage

My mother collected dolls all her live. I grew up in a house full of them. Mom and Dad even had a little doll hospital for a time. They would work on them in our dining room table. My favorite thing was to remove their clothes so I could appreciate their well articulated, little kid glove leather saw dust-filled bodies. This always disturbed my mother as she had put a good deal of work into making or buying attractive clothing: perfect in every detail.

This year my piece occupied on eight by eight foot room, on one end a beautiful custom made glass and wood case, which became a display for four expensive dolls from my mother’s collection. I carefully removed all of their clothing, blindfolded three of them and hung them by their little neck in the center of the room on a handsome wood pedestal. On top of it sat a four-inch glass cube, inside a single bisque 19^th century dolls head was submerged in sand up to her little nose. The sand doll stared over at the four dolls in bondage… a silent witness.

"Photo booth" 1995

Photo booth

Another concept piece

I’ve owned this vintage photo booth machine (model nine) since 1973 and taken 1000’s of photos in it. I decided to it was time to simply enter the booth itself. I visualized it sitting in the gallery spitting out photographs of the visitors to Art Maui there by allowing the viewers to create their own work-rejected!

"Memorial" 2007

Memorial for Tom Sewell

I created a photo booth self-portrait at photo kina in Cologne, Germany in 2006. The photograph was taken with a special camera which created a three dimensional image that was embedded into a three inch high block of crystal. The effect is quite arresting and a bit bizarre .My wife Michelle resisted my request to do her. The Art Maui installation started with the crystal block mounted on a small marble base. The base contained a small light, which illuminated the floating head. This was all presented in a large five-foot high pedestal, which sat in the center of an eight by eight room. The walls were wall papered with 40 years of self-portraits from my photo booth. On the floor was a small marble plaque I had fabricated at a mortuary.

It simply said:

Thomas Sewell

1939-2007

"Passage into realm of night" 1999

Art Maui rejects 1999

“Passage into the realm of night”

This work featured a plaster replica of me on a bed with a canvas wall hanging. It showed enlargements of self-portraits I made in an Indian photo booth. Often I would wake up in the middle of the night and draw on the pictures inspired by my dreams. Although the piece was featured in the front page of “The Maui News”, it ended up in the reject pile.