Crowning Glory | Mingei International Museum

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Our galleries are partially closed while we install our next fall show -- Inside the Design Center! In the meantime, enjoy discounted admission prices. Visit us to see Layered Narratives and Fashioning an Icon (closes on Sept 7th).

Installation view of the Crowning Glory exhibition. Photo by Anthony Scoggins.
Image: Installation view of the Crowning Glory exhibition. Photo by Anthony Scoggins.
On View

Feb 17 - Nov 24, 2007

Curated By

Bonnie Roche

Hawaiian artist Moses created more than 250 hats from paper bags contributed by merchants in his neighborhood. Made in a project room of the local library during the 1980s, the hats are imaginative, amusing and timeless sculpture. They run the gamut from traditional — top hat, Civil War cap and the ‘50s-style _Anthurium,_ to fantastic — the ornately folded and pleated _Gothic Knight_ and a series of caps crowned with seemingly suspended bamboo forms. Occasionally, Moses loaded hats into his Chevy van for a trip to Hapuna Beach where he persuaded passersby to model them for photographs taken with a borrowed camera. Some of those photographs are on view, and a sheaf of his Xeroxed photographs serves as a working catalogue of the collection.

Fashioned from the most ordinary material, these hats are whimsical, yet sophisticated; subtle, yet exuberant; delightful to behold and a pleasure to contemplate.

The exhibition was accompanied by the DVD, _Moses Makes a Hat,_ an interview and demonstration filmed at the Members’ Opening reception, February 17, 2007.

Paper bag hat-making programs were presented on May 12, July 14 and November 10.