Post #617681 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Dec 17, 2011 5:10 PM

For me, the Tiki Modern age in Hawaii started with the Tahitian Lanai, Canlis and the work of Brownlee and Pete Wimberly in the 60s, and petered out sometime in the 70s. Their works were artistically and stylistically the greatest achievements, and comparable to mainland Tiki style. But all along, Hawaiian developers had a much greater sensitivity towards offending native sensibilities, and if they used Tiki carvings as decor pieces for their projects at all, they were kept as close to the original carvings as possible. This authenticity was not a bad thing, it just made for less creative imagination coming into play in comparison to what the mainland artists got away with.

I think Edward Brownlee himself is the best example for this: As a young whippersnapper in the late 50s he was full of artistic gusto and did some really stylized Tikis, like the great Canlis piece you discovered (while he did always aim to stay true to the original). But as an artist who wanted to do "fine art" and was sensitive to the currents of the time, he could not ignore the growing awareness of the crimes of colonialism in the late 60s and 70s and turned his back on Tiki carving all together. Not until a new generation of Tikiphiles showed interest in his early work did he start digging it out.

One could have expected that the Kona Lagoon Hotel, especially considering its choice of location, would have been hip to the new consciousness by the time it was built. Or maybe they thought they were doing the old religion a service?

In my mind, a good example for this cultural sensitivity in existence in the Islands is the (much earlier) Coco Palms:
Located on grounds significant to native Hawaiian history, it is noteworthy that, though the architecture was a great blend of midcentury modern and Polynesian pop, there were no god-images employed anywhere. Not on or in the main A-frame building nor anywhere on the extensive grounds. Though I have no proof for it, this fact cannot be a coincidence. If this resort would have existed on the mainland in the time of Tiki's heyday, it would have been studded with Tikis.

Thank you Alii Tiki for those photos, how great that they have Kii in place on the platforms now. I have brought out the shadow detail a little bit in the second photo:

And good to find out about the Royal Order of Kamehameha !:
http://www.royalorderofkamehameha.org/