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R adar
Marques
M arzan
In his office, Marques Marzan,
a tall, slender man in an island-
design shirt, wears his own
carved-ivory pendant with plait-
ed suspension cord around his
neck. He says thoughtfully,
“I hope to be a bridge between
Hawaii’s past and present, to
honor the cultural traditions of
those before us and blend them
with the innovations of today.”
He reflects on his dual career as
fiber artist and as a Native Ha-
waiian cultural practitioner and
resource specialist at Honolulu’s
Bishop Museum, adding that
he wants “to show respect for
what I know and to share that
with dignity.”
Born on the island of Oahu
and intrigued by the weavings
of his great-grandmother, Mar-
zan learned Hawaiian plaiting
techniques as a teenager. Earn-
ing a
BFA
in fiber at the Univer-
sity of Hawaii at Manoa and
studying under many of Ha-
waii’s master weavers, he ad-
opted Hawaiian fibers and prac-
tices as the basis for his work.
His freestanding, suspended
and relief sculptures, such as
020
american craft
dec/jan io
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Marzan photo Ann Kapulani Landgraf / Wearables photo Brad Goda /
Space Between
photo Paul Kodama.
