Richard Carter

Special to the Times Record News

Kip Fulbeck grew up in Hawaii as the child of a Chinese mother and a white American father.

In elementary school, children would come up to him and ask, “Who are you? What are you?” It was an experience that stuck with him, said Midwestern State University art professor Gary Goldberg, and as Fulbeck developed as an artist, he reflected on those experiences.

An exhibit of Fulbeck’s artwork, “Hapa,” opened earlier this week at the Juanita and Ralph Harvey Art Gallery in the MSU Fain Fine Arts Center. The exhibit of photographic works runs through Dec. 2.

Fulbeck will be at a reception at the gallery from 3-5 p.m. Nov. 11 and will then lecture at 7 p.m. that evening as part of the MSU Artist Lecture Series in Akin Auditorium.

In addition, the MSU art department will display its own exhibit in the back half of the gallery based on Fulbeck’s “Hapa” show.

Fulbeck, the chairman of the art department at the University of California at Santa Barbara, began creating the Hapa project in 2001, and he has produced more than 1,200 pieces. The MSU exhibit includes 30 pieces of an extensive traveling show, which also are part of a book.

The Hapa exhibit features photographs of individuals with biological parents from the Pacific Rim or of an Asian background mixed with some other ethnic background. The subjects were photographed from the shoulders up, with no clothes or jewelry or makeup The artwork focuses on the inherited physical features of male and female subjects of all ages.

“The image is very much about the face and the features,” Goldberg said. “At the bottom of the image, in light gray that you don’t see at first, is their actual specific racial backgrounds. It might say Chinese, English, Filipina or any number of other nationalities. There are some very interesting mixes of cultures and races.”

Underneath the image, each of the subjects has written something about themselves in response to the question, “What are you?” “Some are humorous, some are serious,” Goldberg said. “Some tell you about their experience and some may reflect back on (possibly) your own experience.”

One of the funnier images relates to a woman who is Filipina, Norwegian and Irish, who wrote, “People can’t believe I’m Filipina, but then I tell them I’m also Norwegian, and Norwegian blood can suck the color out of anything.”

Another person wrote, “I am 100 percent black and 100 percent Japanese.”

The comment gives the viewers of the piece insight into how the people imaged view themselves.

“Some see it (their backgrounds) as very central to their being, while others see it as a very minor issue to who they are and all of the grays in-between.”

The title of the show, “Hapa,” is from a derogatory Hawaian slang word for mixed.

“It was a way of saying you’re less than, because your half this and half that,” Goldberg said. “Over the years, it has been re-appropriated by people of mixed heritage and now people self-identity with that word and use it as a badge of courage.”

Fulbeck has written that the idea for the show began when he was in elementary school and felt like there was no specific box that he fit into in terms of identity or background. “Identity,” he writes, “is a personal process and I’m adamant that it should be a personal decision, not one made by a community, a government or others.”

In addition to teaching, Fulbeck makes art and has written books about tattoos and mixed heritage. He’s a slam poet, a marathon distance swimmer and a surfer.

“He’s also a very sought after speaker,” said Goldberg.

Fulbeck will attend a gallery reception from 3- p.m. Friday Nov. 11, and he will examine the ongoing exhibit MSU students will create based on his “Hapa” series.



There will be a photographic studio set in the back half of the gallery, said Goldberg. “We will take pictures of any student in a similar manner (to Fulbeck) and start posting them on the gallery walls. We will ask students to write something about themselves.

“It’s originated toward students, but we will talk all comers. They don’t have to be mixed ethnicity. We just want people to say something about who they are, however they define it.”

Goldberg is very pleased that gallery-goers will be able to experience the artist’s work and hear him formally talk about the ideas behind his project and its many images, Goldberg said.

“So many people come from parents with different ethnicities or religious backgrounds or different socio-economic or class backgrounds. All of these things combined create some very different (and individual) results.”

IF YOU GO

What: An art exhibit and MSU Artist Lecture presentation by Kip Fulbeck

Where: Juanita and Ralph Harvey Art Gallery, Fain Fine Arts Building, Midwestern State University

When: The “Hapa” exhibit may be viewed through Dec. 2 during gallery hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday while MSU is in session. The gallery reception for artist is from 3 to 5 p.m. Nov. 11. Fulbeck’s Artist Lecture Series lecture is 7 p.m. Nov. 11 in Akin Auditorium.

Admission: Free

Information: 397-4369