item details
Craig Neff; artist; Hawaii
Overview
The Hawaiian Force
Craig and Luana Neff founded their clothing company, The Hawaiian Force, as a way of sharing Hawaiian values, culture, thoughts and untold histories with people. Activists at heart, much of their work has a strong political, yet often humorous, slant.
The Hawaiian Force has a shop in Hilo on Hawai’i Island, in which they stock a large range of political t-shirts, as well as a small range of screen-printed aloha wear. The fit of their shirts, like their attitude, is relaxed.
Kapa patterns
The shirt features a pattern of Hawaiian i?e kuku or kapa beaters. Fashioned from wood, the beaters are used by women in the manufacture and decoration of kapa cloth. The side of each beater is carved with a pattern. The four sided i?e kuku is used in the final stage of the production process to impress a water mark pattern into the kapa cloth.
This shirt demonstrates the more playful side of The Hawaiian Force – the depiction of tools associated with women?s work on a men’s shirt, yet drawn knowingly in a wholly phallic way.
This print marked a change in Craig Neff’s style towards large scale prints drawn in a fluid, bold line.
Wearing your culture
For the Neffs, a well-chosen aloha shirt is a way in which people can ‘wear their culture’.
‘… it’s like wearable art, so you have to pick and choose wisely… (it) actually has a deeper significance that’s political, that’s spiritual, that’s fun, that’s a little bit of everything, but also has a message that people can relate to. People can see that you understand.’ – Luana Neff, 2017
Co-collecting in Hawai'i
This shirt was acquired by Te Papa during a co-collecting trip to Hawai'i in 2017. Te Papa worked with Noelle Kahanu,a cultural specialist from the University of Hawai‘i, to develop collection of aloha shirts that reflects the ways in which Hawaiian culture has been historically represented, and misrepresented, through the aloha shirt, and the ways in which contemporary native Hawaiian designers are utilising the aloha shirt to communicate indigenous cultural values. This shirt was purchased at The Hawaiian Force store.
Te Papa’s co-collecting programmes are guided by the principle of mana taonga – the sharing authority with stakeholder communities.