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I finally got a decent, quiet, crisis-free weekend to myself. I went out and finally bought the cyclocross bike I’ve wanted for almost three years now. It’s a Fuji and is almost disturbingly light - the most serious wheeled toy I’ve ever owned. I took it out for a short ride today and it accelerates like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Woo Hoo. Note to self - wear that helmet you’re always not wearing…

Torrance Art Museum

After buying myself a bike, I was in a really, really good mood to look at art, and I went to the opening for the Matthew Thomas show, Seed Forms, at the Torrance Art Museum. I also caught the Hiro Yamagata and Megan Geckler shows (note - TAM has a no photo policy, which I’m going to try and get them to waive for me, since I’m so nice and I really want to put out the good word on the awesome shows they’re having. So no photos in this part of the post, sorry…). I hadn’t seen Geckler’s work before and I really got into it.

Matthew Thomas - I’m totally biased here. Not only is Matthew a co-worker and one of our tenants at the Center, but I love his work and I really look up to him as a person. He’s one of the more insightful and inspiring people I know and it’s really easy for me to look at his work since I have spent a lot of time over the past half-decade thinking about it. Matthew’s work essentially consists of diagrams and geometric abstractions on wood panels. The designs may be drawn, painted, carved, inked or burned into the panels and are sparse in composition. Much of the colour in his work comes from layers of encaustic which are poured over the illustrative elements of each painting, which provides an effect which is hard to describe. His work is an attempt to synthesise systems of knowledge, both scientific and spiritual, and is deeply influenced by his Buddhist practice. Circles, globes and text feature heavily in his work. Many of them resemble Cabalistic diagrams, as well, although I don’t think he’s distinctly drawing on that symbology.

The best thing about seeing Matthew’s work at TAM was a suprising new piece that I hadn’t seen in his studio before. A series of multicoloured concentric circles, like a bullseye with a layer of “strawberry ice cream” coloured encaustic poured over the piece. As in most of his work, the encaustic doesn’t cover the whole piece, only about 85% of it, leaving some of the underdrawing unmediated by the effect of the translucent coloured wax.

Megan Geckler - I knew I’d like the work after I heard the title - “Fill it Up and Pour it Down the Inside”. The show consists of a single sculptural piece, a site specific square spiral of angled, coloured ribbons that extends from a 8′x8′ square platform on the floor, angling out to the larger square recess in the ceiling of the space, which is square. The ribbons are about 2″ wide and are in blue and grass green, which totally reminded me of the backs of lawn furniture. Was that description helpful at all? There’s pictures on her website here, which I’m sure will be more useful than anything I can say. Still - it’s the kind of sculpture that needs to be experienced to really appreciate - go spend some time with it if you can.

Hiro Yamagata - There were about eight immense paintings by laser enthusiast Hiro Yamagata filling the main gallery, which looks really spectacular when there aren’t any interior walls to interfere with the shape of the building. They’re essentially big pop art abstracts and they’re really intense and exciting to look at, but they don’t hold the weight that Thomas or Geckler’s work does for me. They do look damn good, though. My favourite was one that looks like a giant blue pupil, about 12′ x 12′. I have a lot of trouble relating to abstract painting, and maybe being able to relate it to a physical object made me able to maintain interest outside of the simple pleasure of the painting itself.

Estate of Mind at Future Studio Gallery

I went up to this space to support Beth Elliott, who’s one of our Angels Gate Studio Artists and a friend. She’s been making sculptures out of junk mail and other paper epherma that gets sent to her but is addressed to her deceased parents. We had one of them on display during the 2006 On Site at the Gate, and there were four on display at Future Studio. Artists Suzanne Siegel and Deborah Thomas also had work in the show, both referenceing found materials from their parents’ estates. In Siegel’s case she worked with her mother’s 1940’s lingerie and in Thomas’ case, she made a mixed media piece using found photographs from her parents’ home as the focus.

Above - Beth Elliott with one of her sculptures.
I had never been out to Future Studio before, so I had no idea what to expect. The space is sort of an office/gift shop/thrift shop/kitchen/studio, with living quarters presumably somewhere on the premesis. I bought a Chicken Boy Statue of Liberty (more on that later) in the gift shop, and they had 1980’s snow globes on sale, too (Check out Gorbachev here). In other words it seems to serve the multiple needs of its owners, which I really liked. Like at Walled City, all of the chow was homemade with the highlight being cakes made in a mold of Beth’s face.

The Discovery of My Deep Love for Chicken Boy

I had heard a little something about Chicken Boy before, but I couldn’t really remember what the deal was until I walked into Future Studio. I was familiar with the various Chickon Boy iconographic swag, but I had no idea of the source of Chicken Boy itself. Chicken Boy is essentially a highly modified “muffler man” style fiberglass mascot, which was rescued from who-knows-what by its current owner “She Who is Known as Chicken Boy’s Mom”. Instead of a normal head, it has a giant chicken head instead, and insted of a muffler, axe or golf club, it wields a far mightier bucket of fried chicken. Today it rests disassembled in the back of the gallery, awaiting the upcoming raising of Chicken Boy to the roof of it’s new Highland Park home.

I had never been so close to a real muffler man before, and it’s aura of primal Americana has captured all of my road trip imagination - I’m now totally obsessed with seeing it raised into position. Reading the Chicken Boy website (beware audio flash into - it’s brief, but it’s still audio/flash), I’m not suprised that a whole pile of museums were stupid enough to resist the gift of what is surely a more relevant addition to their sculpture gardens than any “regular” sculpture, but I’m filled with envy - if some donor came to me with muffler men, you better believe I’d see the magic and get that thing installed in as prominent a place as is possible.

Above - Like an avian Frankenstien, Chicken Boy awaits the bolt of lightning that will return him to his true calling as a rooftop mascot. Chicken Boy’s awesome head is the source of his magic. It’s designed in such a way as to present a sense of total joy and happiness, he wants to share his bucket of chicken with you!