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| 1
Year Later |
Bender's
Tale |
EFAC |
A.S.E. |
How
Does Your Light Shine? |
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Artists'
Statement: The MIB Cycle
Our recent work involves the cross-fertilization of popular culture (that which is sold) and folk culture (that which is told). Pop culture is traditionally thought to appropriate folk culture and not the other way around, but in this era of McLuhan's global village when Mickey Mouse can appear in a shaman's vision, the relationship between popular and folk culture has become more democratic. Accordingly, our current work combines pop and folk elements in a way that gives both equal weight and gives neither teleological precedence. The MIB Cycle is a series of five related works that employ the motif of the Man In Black to explore this cultural xenogamy. All works feature looping audio/animatronics, animation and/or moving lights and function best in a darkened environment. 1 Year Later is a multi-media installation conflating Robert Frank's photograph, Covered Car, Long Beach, CA, Johnny Cash and Men in Black. The three animatronic silhouettes in the car whisper along robotically to Johnny Cash's Cry, Cry, Cry, the lyrics to which speak of surveillance, interrogation and threat, hallmarks of Cold War domestic intelligence operations. The layout of the installation suggests Photoshop layers and refers to the tenuous relationship between photography and truth. Visitors to the cafe in the multi-media installation EFAC can read a well-circulated piece of UFO disinformation and eavesdrop via the jukebox on two animatronic Men in Black as they conspire in silhouette, whispering hardboiled dialog from various films noir of the late 1940’s. A view behind the wall reveals both the robotic nature of the MIBs and the set-like nature of the cafe. In Bender's Tale a silhouetted, animatronic Man in Black speaks a fantastic amalgam of pulp science fiction and dime novel mysticism from a dream chronicled in Albert K. Bender's 1962 book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men, while bright suns and shadowy planets swirl behind him. A.S.E. is an LED animation of the All Seeing Eye from the apex of The Great Seal of the United States, which was given to Thomas Jefferson by a stranger in a black cloak and can now be found on the back of every one dollar bill. In the assemblage How Does Your Light Shine?, three animatronic Chihuahuas atop the glowing mountains bob their heads rhythmically to Three Dog Night's 1973 hit Shambala in a multi-media investigation of the links between Shambala, star system Sirius and Men in Black. |
