Cartoons and villains
Racine Art Museum exhibit fuses science fiction and fantasy into craft art
Darth Vader would not find a disturbing lack of faith at the Racine Art Museum this summer. Curator Lena Vigna has brought together two domains noted for passionate intensity, if not outright obsession — the universe of science fiction and fantasy, and the continuum of craft artists — in “A Whole Other World: Sub-Culture Craft.”
Subtitled “Artists Inspired by Doctor Who, Star Wars, Steampunk, and Superheroes,” the exhibit displays works as deceptively simple as Kristy Daum’s “The Tenth Quilt,” an enormous stitched portrait of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor Who, and as surreal and visually complex as Ai Kijima’s “Odyssey,” an explosion of cartoon characters and superheroes.
Many works in this exhibit required an incredible amount of labor, Vigna pointed out, turning to James Haggerty’s “Darth” (2014) as an example. Haggerty fashioned this moody portrait of Darth Vader from 12,352 colored staples.
The artist, she pointed out, was looking for material to use that could mimic effects of his painting and printmaking but be less toxic than certain kinds of oil paint, for example.
It’s also somehow fitting that the dark lord’s image be constructed out of tiny sharp pieces of metal.
Whether they’re artists mining sci-fi and fantasy imagery for visual raw material or megafans claiming ownership in worlds they love through making works, the creators included in this exhibit pay homage to the power of their original sources.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in “The Coruscant Tapestry” (2014), Aled Lewis’s 30-foot-long textile work, which Lewis jokes on his website is “Han Stitched.”
Lewis modeled this piece after the Bayeux Tapestry (circa 1070), an embroidered cloth more than 200 feet long that depicts events in English history leading up to the Norman Conquest and Battle of Hastings in 1066.
In “The Coruscant Tapestry,” Lewis depicts key events of the “Star Wars” saga in chronological order; the right border of the cloth is not finished off, leaving room for future scenes from future episodes.
The artist pixilated key, recognizable scenes from the movies, such as Leia recording her urgent message in R2-D2’s memory, or the confrontation
between Han Solo and Greedo.
He then recruited family, friends and other helpers to cross-stitch the scenes, Vigna said.
The border text is in Aurebesh, the galactic vernacular in “Star Wars” (a key is provided for visitors who want to translate as they view the art).
In contrast to the singleminded faith of Lewis, New York artist Ai Kijima creates wildly syncretic amalgamations of characters in her machine-quilted collages, three of which are displayed here.
Half the fun of looking at “Odyssey” (2012) is picking out familiar faces, including Tommy from “Rugrats,” Tweety Bird (in Buzz Lightyear’s spacesuit, no less), Ash from the Pokemon universe, SpiderMan, Batman, Harry Potter, Blossom from “The Powerpuff Girls,” and America’s dynamic duo of masculinity — Elvis Presley and Homer Simpson.
Like many craft artists in this exhibit, Kijima works by recycling materials, in her case bedsheets, curtains and other printed textiles she has found at flea markets and thrift stores.
“She mimics the idea that our contemporary landscape is a bunch of images and words and stories, almost like we’re operating at su- perfast speed and all of these things are flying in front of us,” Vigna said.
Speaking of masculinity, Michigan fiber artist Mark Newport explores a softer side of such Übermenschen as Mister Fantastic, Batman and Daredevil with his hand-knit wearable costumes.
While some are life-size, the Batman costume is an oversize 10 feet long, prompting a visitor to ponder why this most mortal and human of superheroes is represented so.
The exhibit also includes Newport’s costumes for a pair of imaginary superheroes he’s created, notably Argyleman (who could easily be the alter ego of Carlton from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”).
The steampunk portion of this show includes fanciful inventions and objects that will no doubt appeal to fans of the subgenre.
But I was most fascinated by Milwaukee artist Timothy L. Westbrook’s deceptive wool dresses, which appear to be elegant Victorian wear.
However, taking a closer look, Westbrook has created this couture from a mixture of found textiles and cassette tape — Vigna pointed out tiny bits of flaring tape familiar to any old-school hand rewinder.
Young visitors to the exhibit, Vigna said, often don’t know what cassette tape is, until museum staff mention that in “‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ Star-Lord is playing a mixtape.”
Staples that look like brush strokes, cassette tape woven through dresses, a textile history that mimics a medieval English masterpiece — this exhibit is so rife with deception that any self-respecting Admiral Ackbar would shout, “It’s a trap!” Indeed, “A Whole Other World” is a trap, but one that fans of fantasy and contemporary craft can both be happily caught up in.