Honolulu Weekly

Those who drive any community’s art scene are likely to cross paths, whether it happens in the same city, at a film festival in Berlin or across several cities the world over. This was the case for Wei Fang and Anderson Le. The two had always wanted to work together, having interacted in the international art world numerous times, and they noticed that local “art and design were getting more institutionalized, less international,” says Le.

As Le describes it, he and Fang started Interisland Terminal in 2008 as “a way to ignite interest” in a wider swath of local art and design, all the while keeping a “fun, whimsical and agile” approach.

Fang says that part of that approach meant both growing the community’s creative capital, while also cultivating Honolulu as an international art scene and maintaining what she describes as “an international conversation” between artists.

Noting that the collective is civic-minded, Fang describes what she sees as a three-pronged approach to the intersection of art and community: Utilizing film as a medium to tell stories, art as a way to ask questions and design as a way to find solutions. Bringing on other friends from the art world–Sean Shodahl, Sarah Honda and Ben Trevino–the current incarnation of Interisland Terminal also has the sponsorship of the nonprofit incubator Community Links Hawaii, which means the collective was able to hit the ground running on a professional level.

“I’ve seen too many arts organizations fall victim to too much passion and not enough management,” said Fang. “We want to keep this very organized. When thinking about projects, we ask ourselves, ‘Is it going resonate with the community? Will it be accessible? Will it be challenging?’”

One of the group’s firsts projects was to feature a black-and-white drawing exhibit from Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde in a Kaimuki cell phone store.

“When you think about contemporary art, you might think of Chinatown,” said Le. “We wanted the pop-up gallery to be in a neighborhood that people usually don’t associate with contemporary art.”

This weekend welcomes Interisland Terminal’s rock ’n‘ roll film festival, Turn It Up to 11, at Kahala Theatres. It features an international array of rockin’ films from the ’80s to today. Future projects include a Brazilian furniture show and a competition to design a functional kiosk–an idea that emerged from the group’s desire to find unconventional aspects of conventional spaces.

“We want to push people’s abilities as emerging designers,” Fang said.

The collective also eventually wants to have more interface with the community–bringing in experts and conducting workshops or even retreats for artists. At the rate they’re going, Interisland Terminal’s artists might find themselves breaking boundaries without even trying.