Chenta Laury

Chenta Laury is a fiber artist who lives and works in Hawaii. The artist employs several Hawaiian processes including Kapa, a term native Hawaiians use for the barkcloth. This fabric is used for clothing, bedding and for a variety of other secular and ceremonial purposes. The most common plant used in the making of Hawaiian kapa is wauke (the paper mulberry tree, Broussonetia papyrifera).

“I am interested in the relationship between identity and place, and how we construct and deconstruct individual identities within the context of a larger society. As human beings, we shift, adapt, resist or embrace the various influences within the social, cultural and natural ecosystems in which we live. We find patterns, invent, and re-organize ourselves continuously as we move chronologically through time and geographically through space. In the most abstract terms, I see this as a relationship between individual “parts” to a larger “whole.” I associate this journey of finding and fitting the various pieces of ourselves together with patchwork—articulating and finding meaning in the patterns, textures, and salvageable pieces of our identities.”  

Laury has shown her work in many galleries and museums in Hawaii. She has also exhibited her work at the Sears Peyton Gallery in New York.