The “Volcano,” a sculpture by late artist Satoru Abe, stands solidly before the former box office at Aloha Stadium.
When Abe created and installed the sculpture in 1981, he welded 38 pieces of bronze and copper together on-site, and poured concrete into the pillars to ensure it would remain permanently in place.
It has been a hallmark piece at the gateway to Aloha Stadium, greeting thousands of visitors for more than four decades.
Now, the Stadium Authority and developers say it has to be moved, as the emblematic, 17-foot tall sculpture is smack in the middle of where a new road is slated to go for the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.
It presents a new dilemma as the state moves forward on its multiphased, multibillion-dollar redevelopment project to replace the old Aloha Stadium with a modern sports arena and mixed-use community.
The Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, which owns the sculpture, estimates it will cost upward of $600,000 to relocate it. The sculpture is part of its Art in Public Places collection, funded by 1% of construction for new state buildings.
The SFCA, however, does not have the money to relocate it after the state Legislature last year restricted special funds previously used for such purposes.
Karen Ewald, SFCA’s executive director, said she is working with all parties to find a solution.
“SFCA has always supported and intended to keep ‘Volcano’ at the new Aloha Stadium,” said Ewald in an email. “SFCA has worked in close partnership with the Stadium Authority, DAGS Public Works, and Aloha Halawa District Partners to ensure that the artwork remains part of the site as the new stadium is completed.”
The family of Abe, meanwhile, is heartbroken by the potential dismantling of the piece the artist specifically created for Aloha Stadium.
Abe, a prolific artist known for his many public sculptures throughout Hawaii with recurring motifs reflecting nature — seed and wheel forms and trees with branches reaching toward the sun — died Feb. 4 of last year. He was 98.
In December, just a few months before his death, he asked family to revisit some of his sculptures around Oahu before heading to the Honolulu Museum of Art, which was featuring his works in a retrospective exhibition.
Donovan Goto, Abe’s grandson, said he requested a trip to his alma mater, McKinley High School, to see the “Hall of Fame” and his garden sculpture, and then Aloha Stadium.
Goto said they admired the “Volcano” quietly, from afar for awhile.
It is a moment etched in his mind, as it was the last time he and Abe got to spend time together.
He was living in Japan at the time, and had been home visiting Honolulu over the holidays. Though Abe was a man of few words, he believes “Volcano” was one of the pieces he was most proud of.
Goto walked around it that day, revisiting a piece he had seen many times in his youth, noticing new details, including hidden symbols and Abe’s name stamped in the panels beneath.
“There’s maybe a small handful (of sculptures) he had to make on-site, where he didn’t have the chance to put it together until it was there,” he said. “For it to come together in the nice, geometric circle he envisioned — he was happy and so proud of it.”
Goto said his grandfather built “everything to be permanent,” including handmade bookcases wedged into walls in his Kaimuki home that are immovable.
Abe’s daughter, Gail Goto, said a lot of thought went into the placement of the sculpture and how it fitted into the space — it’s a reflection of the stadium, upside down.
She was shocked to learn of the “Volcano” sculpture’s uncertain fate, and horrified at the thought of it being dismantled into pieces.
“I didn’t think that it was ever going to be moved,” she said. “You can’t take a piece of art and then hope and pray you can put it back together again. You wouldn’t be able to do it the same way he did.”
Were he alive, she is sure he would say, “OK, I’ll help you and I’ll do it.”
Alfred Preis, the SFCA’s first executive director, commissioned the piece for $50,000, and it was completed in 1981.
Abe was living in Makaha then, and she remembers how he laid each piece down on his lanai. He and Preis, an architect, collaborated on many pieces together.
Road takes precedence
Justin Lui, project manager of Aloha Halawa District Partners, which is overseeing the redevelopment, said based on given parameters, the road must go through the “Volcano.”
Traffic engineers drew a horizontal line bisecting the site of the sculpture.
“If we didn’t have to touch it, we would much rather have it stay in its current location,” said Lui. “But we also want the site to function efficiently from a traffic perspective, and the roadway network also has to work for the stadium.”
Lui’s team and traffic engineer considered adjusting the road farther one way or the other, but based on where existing roadways need to go for ingress and egress, it has to go through the sculpture.
A roundabout, he said, would cut off the sculpture and isolate it.
“We looked at many different scenarios, trying to circle around it or go in a different direction,” said Lui, “but there’s roadway geometry governed by roadway standards.”
Aloha Halawa District Partners, along with SFCA and the Aloha Stadium Authority all agree, however, they want to bring the sculpture back after construction is done.
The redevelopment of the 98-acre stadium site includes a new 31,000-seat stadium, along with housing, hotel towers and retail outlets.
“We think a good compromise would be to keep the artwork within the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment project as a whole,” he said.
He envisions it in an area that welcomes visitors, as it did for decades, and where the public can interact with the sculpture up close. One possibility, he said, is the new promenade that will connect Skyline to the Aloha Stadium.
Ultimately, however, SFCA will determine the placement of the sculpture.
Based on the construction timeline, he said the sculpture does not have to be moved until some time in 2028.
Funding snafu
A new law limiting SFCA’s use of special funds that was passed last year, meanwhile, is hampering relocation efforts.
Last year, the state Legislature passed House Bill 1378, which was signed into law, establishing a performing arts grants program but also restricting allowable expenditures from the Works of Art Special Fund.
The special fund can only be used for the acquisition, design, and construction of works of art, but not maintenance, restoration or storing and transporting works of art.
Ewald said the initial estimated cost of relocating the “Volcano,” at $600,000, includes its careful dismantling, relocation, necessary repairs, storage, and reinstallment. The final amount, however, depends on the solicitation process.
An SFCA staff report laid out options for the sculpture before its board, including returning to the state Legislature to seek an amendment expanding allowable uses of the special fund; requesting a general fund appropriation; or amending SFCA’s policy to broaden reasons for the deaccessioning of artworks.
SFCA said its top preference is to seek the legislative amendment, which if successful, could potentially fund the relocation of “Volcano,” but not until July 2027.
The cost could be closer to $700,000, according to Craig McGinnis, NASED special projects director.
“This is a piece that I think a lot of people have seen and associate with the Aloha Stadium,” said McGinnis, “And I think all parties that I have spoken with have said they want to keep it there at Aloha Stadium … Our hope is that once the new stadium is built that it gets reinstalled in the district.”
The Honolulu Museum of Art mourned the loss of Abe, calling him one of Hawaii’s “most renowned and influential artists.”
Born in Moiliili, Abe worked as an artist in New York before returning to Hawaii. He was a founding member of the Metcalf Chateau, a group of seven artists that helped shape Hawaii’s modern art movement.
His iconic sculpture, “The Wheel” is still on view at HoMA.
Gail Goto says she would prefer the road be moved rather than her father’s sculpture. The idea of its deaccessioning, or permanent removal from the collection, is hurtful.
At the same time, she remembers Abe’s philosophy that once he sold a piece of art, it no longer belonged to him.
“I just want it to be to be loved and cared for, wherever it goes,” she said.
‘VOLCANO’
>> Artist: Satoru Abe (June 13, 1926-Feb. 4, 2025)
>> Completed in 1981. Commissioned by Alfred Preis, SFCA’s first executive director
>> Dimensions: About 17 feet tall, 24 feet in diameter at the base
>> Materials: Copper and bronze, 38 pieces, each weighing 75 to 400 pounds
>> Site: Aloha Stadium
Source: Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
