The Art of Uncycling
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| "Puff of Smoke:" Peter Pranschke's latch hook and velour confection is a masterpiece of psychometry. Because you know some old lady once smoked a lot of ciggies on this sofa. |
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| "HYPE:" Tim Meehan's paint-by-numbers message gets down to brass tacks! |
The following piece of pure puffery is from last March! Talk about upcycling!
I'm not sure why I have such a grudge against "upcycling." I've even made money off it: once, when I was selling my Junk Dungeon overflow on Etsy, I unloaded a large box of old cotton sheets onto a paying customer who subsequently spent hours and hours ripping the fabric into strips, and then braiding those into ugly rugs. Does this world really need more ugly rugs, or a cheese grater turned into a wall-mounted pencil holder? Upcycling always reminds me of the crafts suggested by that old Sunday Comics salt, Cappy Dick, my favorite of which was to make an ashtray out of a saucer by glueing neon-brite aquarium gravel to it. I used to give those to my grandparents at Christmas.
Why waste your time earnestly making something hideously useful, when you could have way more fun making something beautifully useless? Just quit buying crap. Then you won't have to worry about what landfill it ends up in.
The best thing about this show at the Hoffman LaChance Contemporary gallery, "On the Shoulders of ....." is the pure energy of it. 46 (mostly) St. Louis artists revamped tired old thrift store finds into something dazzlingly new. This is not upcycling, it's uncycling. The exhibiting artists took the objects they manipulated off the wheel of Life and Rebirth by suffusing them with enlightenment.
My iPhone camera liked Tim Meehan's and Peter Pranschke's work best. Meehan subverts patriotic iconography with shiny 3-D lettering. Pranschke is a purist who used thrifted yarn on his sofa cushion canvas, and taught himself how to latch hook by watching YouTube videos. But all 46 creators deliver the oomph. Jason Spencer used his ink to peel the faces off sappy prints of a darling little cowboy and sunbonnet girl, right back to the bone. Creepy, but cute. Amy Bautz painted a legendary thieving squirrel named "Pickie Pete" onto a bland green silk screen. Created by Candy Nartonis in 1979, "Morning Main" became the hybrid "Portrait of an Artist as a Thief" in 2013.
My iPhone camera liked Tim Meehan's and Peter Pranschke's work best. Meehan subverts patriotic iconography with shiny 3-D lettering. Pranschke is a purist who used thrifted yarn on his sofa cushion canvas, and taught himself how to latch hook by watching YouTube videos. But all 46 creators deliver the oomph. Jason Spencer used his ink to peel the faces off sappy prints of a darling little cowboy and sunbonnet girl, right back to the bone. Creepy, but cute. Amy Bautz painted a legendary thieving squirrel named "Pickie Pete" onto a bland green silk screen. Created by Candy Nartonis in 1979, "Morning Main" became the hybrid "Portrait of an Artist as a Thief" in 2013.
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| Art or Cappy Dick? This scary wig head was photographed at the Treasure Aisles Antique Mall, where I browsed junk before the opening to "get in the mood." I think she belongs in the show! |