Thursday, April 21, 2016

Window Installation for "Encountering Yellow" at Studio Place Arts


The new show at SPA is called Encountering Yellow, and I've made an installation in the front window (and over the front door) using a bunch of lampshades I found while dumpster diving in New Orleans when we were there in January and February. They have a gorgeous yellow color inside (from years of people in motels smoking next to them, someone suggested...).

Here's a photo that James Secor took of the installation after he came down off the ladder (and it was also he who suggested some of them should go outside as well as inside):


I took this one with my phone after Sue finished taking the old signage off the window; I'll get more images later.


This is a fun show, and SPA's annual BASH (Big Arty SPA Happening) will be on May 13 -- so plan to come and party with us!


Sunday, April 10, 2016

Militarization of Our Police


So this is the image I said I'd post.


Here we have exactly the same vehicles, army green on the left, and police black on the right. Somehow the black vehicles are more sinister -- maybe because we know that WE are the ones who might be the objects of their actions, not "those people" somewhere else in the world...

And again, the brand name "Rescue  Team" is like the "Peacekeepers" from the last post. Who is being rescued here?

Sunday, April 3, 2016

War Games


What do you think of when you think of Peace? Apparently the makers of war toys have appropriated the word Peacekeeper to market the old familiar war toys -- soldiers, tanks, guns, and other weapons.



I happened upon these because I was looking for Army vehicles for a project I'm doing. I prefer to have old, well-used toy vehicles (some of which I got from my grandson), but I have also used some new ones (more about which in a future post).

I'm working on a piece that combines my interest in the destruction of animals and their habitat, war, and the series of pull toys I called Rolling Boil. This piece is still in progress, as I'm not sure whether (and how) to connect the animals carrying war vehicles to the cart of people behind.