Margo Ray


by Sally Lundburg

The long narrow room is flooded with sunlight from double doors on one side that open into a courtyard. I am in a secluded section of an old macadamia nut factory down in Haina Camp on the Big Island of Hawaii. The factory, now turned artist studios is where Margo Ray has found her own quiet space. Guarded by tall centurions of dark red ti plants, the rocky courtyard is overgrown, where a small sandy colored dog eats grass and smells the flowers. I’m here to photograph Margo and her artwork, but the dog (Mr. Wu) will ultimately figure largely in the shoot and he eyes me suspiciously.

“I approach my work through the process of collection… my process is fast, intuitive, random and excessive.”

Indeed. The walls, tables, desk, even ceiling are piled, stacked, strewn and hung with paper scraps, toys, ribbons, lights…exuberant color is the predominant impression. Preparing for back-to-back solo exhibitions, her first mainland
U.S. solo show at the 2nd Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia and her first museum show at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center on Oahu; the room and hallway are packed to the brim with work. Margo has been working religiously for over a year…several days a week; many nights & weekends spent painting, casting, cutting, gluing, and building. The span of her work for the upcoming shows includes paintings, prints, sculpture, and animation, all of which are deeply rooted in the history of the Hawaiian cowboy, or Paniolo, and the landscape that sustained them. The title of Margo’s upcoming show is “Sublime Spaces, Forgotten Places”, a specific reference to the rapidly fading ranching industry that was once so central to the local economy of the Big Island.

A table overflows with softly colored neon cow, sheep and boar skulls… pink, yellow, orange. These species were introduced to Hawaii as hunting prey, but ultimately became destructive to the native ecosystem. The skulls will be mounted and hung on the wall in the style of hunting trophies, as Ray attempts to “sanctify the feral”…exploring the relationships between man, land and animal and notions of freedom, domestication and prey.

“Divided by a barbwire fence, there exists a dramatic boundary between lowland forests rich with native flora and fauna, and pastoral ranching lands home to cattle, wild boar, and game birds. … Time spent in both landscapes, native and invasive (depending on your politic) has fostered an appreciation for the intense beauty of both.”

Our interview and photo session was sparked by my own curiosity and a feeling of what might be called solidarity. We are both artists, raised in Hawaii, of Caucasian decent. As racial outsiders, we each make work that in some way speaks of our relationship to the natural and cultural environment that we grew up in. As Margo says in her statement “exploring notions of displacement, vulnerability and authenticity.” But beyond that… our work diverges, taking different techniques, style and subject matter. While my work is often dark in tone and content, I am fascinated by the humor and vibrancy of Margo’s paintings, sculptures and installation… even when touching upon ideas of loneliness and isolation.

She is deeply influenced by author Haruki Murakami for his cross-cultural take on fantastical and surreal situations that he inserts into everyday circumstances, and Frieda Kahlo’s use of intense, vibrant colors and loaded symbolism in her paintings. William Kentridge has also been influential through his examination of self in his political and social surroundings as well as his fluid movement between mediums; print, sculpture, drawing and animation. Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer’s use of collage, compound imagery and text have continued to inform Margo’s practice. All of these artists work embrace a fantastic and metaphysical take on the political and social condition of contemporary life.

Hung on the studio wall and leaning against it are several paintings predominated by the image of a water tank, a structure that Margo has been exploring throughout her art practice, first through prints, photographs and paintings, but now also as three dimensional sculptures. There are screen printed planks piled in the hallway, waiting for their journey to Virginia. They will be resurrected as an actual tank in the gallery that will contain a mural size painting wrapped around the interior.

“For Ray, these round, enclosed, ‘temple-like’ spaces represent loneliness and isolation as well as infinite latent potential existing within a mysterious space. The water contained within the tanks becomes representative of the artist herself and her internalized experience.”(Inger Tully, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu)

Margo watches me from the corner, surrounded by her work, as I unpack my cameral bag. The painting directly behind her contains a silhouetted self portrait in a cowboy hat, standing in an isolated landscape punctuated by collaged flowers and backed by a star-crossed sky. There is an air of beauty and nostalgia here, but with it, a critical perspective and a fresh contemporary eye. "I hope to suggest a world that is complex in its layered emotions and one that encompasses wit, empathy, humor, wonder and a hidden element of critical anger ….a deeply rooted critique of the contemporary 'order of things'.”

So the photo session begins. Margo, quiet, soft, shy, steely….holding Wu in her lap.

Between Worlds, Waters Flow, an Installation by Margo Ray will be on view
from July 2^nd-Oct. 15 at the Contemporary Museum at the First Hawaiian Center.

Born and raised in Hawaii, and educated at Concordia University in Montreal, Margo Ray has shown extensively throughout Canada and Hawaii. She holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and a BA in Studio Arts from University of Hawaii at Hilo. She currently lives in Honokaa and is co-owner, with her husband, of Ironwood Custom Framing and Design in Waimea.

Photos by Sally Lundburg / Mahi'ai Creative

Sally Lundburg is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker from the Big Island, who is fascinated with the many tools and techniques available to tell a story, and creates work that bridges collage techniques with documentary sensibilities. She has a Bachelors in Fine Arts degree from The San Francisco Art Institute and has shown in galleries in Hawaii and San Francisco, and in film festivals both nationally and internationally. Sally lives on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, where she and her husband run a creative studio serving non-profits and public agencies with innovative video and design. See more at www.sallylundburg.com and www.mahiaicreative.com.

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Artists Margo Ray, Scott Yoell, Keith Tallett, and Sally Lundburg will exhibit their work in AGGROculture, their upcoming show at Art at Mark's Garage in Honolulu, in October, 2010. They explore the themes of sustainability, cultural and environmental impact, and local food production through a variety of media and methodology, including collage, printmaking, photography, painting, sound, video and sculptural installation. Responding and reflecting on issues that are of both regional and global concern, the artists delve into such topics as GMO's, local farm commerce, plantation history, and native ecosystems. The opening reception for AGGROculture will be held Friday, October 1 from 5- 10pm at 1159 Nu'uanu Ave, Honolulu. For more info about Art at Mark's Garage - (808) 521-2903