Work of Art: Multimedia (My Life), n.d.
Scope and Contents
This series consists of 20 original, three-dimensional panels decorated in various media and with attached objects.
The panels, conceived as a collage series entitled “My Life,” were featured in an exhibit held in the University of Hawai‘i Campus Center, February 21, 1998. Goodfriend provided an introductory caption for the series, as well as a caption for each panel. The general notes for each item are quoted from the captions on the original labels, contained in a 23 x 28 x 3 cm. wrapped package labeled, “Arthur Goodfriend—Labels,” and inserted into the top surface of the protective Styrofoam inside box #7.
Dates
- Creation: n.d.
Conditions Governing Access
Some fragile items may need to be handled by the staff only. Use of audiovisual material may require the production of listening or viewing copies.
This collection may be accessed in the John Troup Moir Jr. and Gertrude M.F. Moir Archives Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Hamilton Library addition. Reading room hours and policies can be found on the archives website: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/research/collections/archives/visiting-us/. If you have questions, please contact the archives by email: archives@hawaii.edu or phone: (808) 956-6047.
General
Goodfriend's explanation of the series:
“In these twenty Plexiglas panels I try to tell the story of my life. It begins with birth in 1907 and, at 82, anticipates my death.
“The Plexiglas provides two surfaces suggesting distances in time and space; and enabling paint, Plasticine and collaged objects to interact. Reflected images are augmented by mirrors. Be it a baby’s brain, a Nazi concentration camp, a college commencement, the viewer becomes part of the picture.
“Signature of the series is a dice cube, symbolic of the crap-shoot that life seems to be or, perhaps, descriptive of a Deity who determines our destiny.
“Art is not the object of this exercise. The purpose, rather, is to encourage youth to live rich lives, and to urge the aged to leave a legacy. Be it by painting, poetry, prose, music or any other medium, no greater gift can be given the present and future than a record of the past.”
Repository Details
Part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Libraries Repository