Although he’s now a celebrated Tiki artist, Thorn’s work wasn’t initially embraced by Hawaiians. The works have important cultural and religious significance and they weren’t convinced he was the right person to be doing them. “I don’t know if you’ve seen photos of me, but I’m this greaser tattoo-ed guy and he’s carving in Hawaii… I was on TV there and news I was really an outsider and it did stir up a lot of people who were not happy I was there,” he says. “That completely changed once I did a lot of Hawaiian antique shows. I carved live there and I had a lot of elders who had been carving for 50, 60 years and they were very impressed and very proud that I was doing something that the people there weren’t doing. When you think about it I am the only one in Hawaii who is carving the size I carve.”
Thorn is practical in his approach to creating future antiques. “I have to prepare it like that, what I do as a sculptor and carver is very much about the legacy, not the money. When I’m over there I’m very particular with what woods I use. I like to make sure that every piece I do is hardwood. You want your piece to be around forever, so why not start with the hardest wood that you can get.”
Back home in Australia though, there are slightly smaller pieces to be done for Tiki ‘N’ Toxica, a show featuring not only artwork, but opening night music by Intoxica. “It’s a show that of course, is all about Tikis, and it’s not just about Tikis, it’s about the lifestyle and Tikis and Polynesia altogether, which can be anything from Gilligan’s Island to The Brady Bunch go to Hawaii,” says Thorn.
Kustom Lane is pretty roomy for an independent gallery, but not quite big enough for one of Thorn’s 12 foot pieces. For this show he’s got something a little smaller in mind. “I’m doing two pieces: one is an arm, a tattoo-ed arm which is going way back to ancient time when a lot of the islanders would carve a wooden leg or a wooden arm and just put all their tattoo work all over the piece. It’s a New Zealand arm which would look kind of cool in a glass cabinet in a tattoo shop. It’s very much a family tree design that they usually get on their arms. The second piece that I’m doing is a shrunken head of Gilligan it’s kind of a cartoon style shrunken head. All the details are there, but it’s got the similarities to make it look like Gilligan. It has a big smile and dimples in its cheeks to make it look like Gilligan. Gilligan’s white hat is carved as one piece as well,” says Thorn, describing the piece as pretty cute.
Thinking of carving a whole piece out of one bit of wood sounds terrifying, and visions of rubbing out mistakes until all that’s left is a toothpick come to mind. What does happen if a sculptor makes a mistake? “The crazy thing is that I get asked that question a lot. It’s a good question,” says Thorn. “I think every carving I do I look at as a tattoo, a tattoo is probably the closest thing to sculpture. You start off with a lump of wood and you start taking away from it, but in my mind it’s already there and I kind of just keep taking away until it appears. I look at it as if I’m digging for bones. You keep your shovel and when you get close you start feathering it and get all the dirt and dust off the bone. It’s kind of already there and I just keep sculpting away I thin it’s in the back of your mind all the time I think every single piece I carve, even if I’m doing a 12 foot piece in Hawaii for a development, it’s the same thing. All I’m thinking is, ‘jeez, can I do this?’ Every piece I do, in my head I go, ‘Oh gee, I don’t know if I can do this,’ and then you start working on it and it appears.”
