On May 17th and 18th, I set up a collage-making area for gallery guests as part of the International Children’s Festival. Image by Rebecca Lessner.
Piece of Parmesan, 2014 (From a story about my Grandfather’s old grocery store).
Planet Axe-Iron, commentary on the prescription drug industry, 2014.
That Nickel, acrylic on canvas, 2014.
Visitor collage-making day. Image by Rebecca Lessner.
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Over 500 came out for the opening of The Occasional Market last night! Here are some images by Pittsburgh photographer Larry Rippel.
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Hand-painted sign in the front window.
Installation view, The Occasional Market.
Installation view of The Occasional Market.
Top shelf: Catfish (made from eyeglass case), Delivery, Ceramic Spaceship. Bottom: Cast Metal Spaceship, Ceramic Vessel, Assemblage Spaceship.
The Occasional Market is set to open this Friday. The gallery is very organized for now, but the show will change as I arrive for occasional performances and other activities. Forty-eight pieces are now on view, including three 4′ x 5′ collage paintings, several pencil drawings, some smaller collage pieces, a wooden cart, three puppets, and small sculptures in metal ceramic and assemblage.
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Delivery, 2014
Small Sculptural Items for The Occasional Market
The Occasional Market, my new show of paintings, objects and actions opens on Friday, April 25th at 707 Gallery Pittsburgh. The show blends the gallery experience with ideas about shopping. Years ago, my grandfather ran a small neighborhood grocery store in the East End of Pittsburgh. I grew up listening to stories about his shop. This sparked my interest in independent neighborhood shops as important as centers of public interaction. The show references some old-time stories, but I also address issues of consumer society today. I will make occasional appearances for performances, actions and alterations to the space. If you stop by, I may play shopkeeper and try to sell you something.
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Radioactivity, 48″ x 60″, 2014
A new painting for my upcoming show, The Occasional Market, at 707 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh.
Detail of Radioactivity, 2014
Detail #2 of Radioactivity, 2014
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Here are some new collage pieces that I’ll be showing at my show at 707 Penn Avenue Gallery, Pittsburgh opening April 25th, 2014.
Head East, 48″ x 60″, 2014
Occasionally, 48″ x 60″, 2014
Detail of Occasionally, 2014
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Installation shot, Talking About the Weather, 2005, image by Larry Rippel
In 2005, The Three Rivers Arts Festival had a visual arts curator who crafted the festival’s annual show and selected artists from around the country for large-scale projects. The annual show was held at the galleries at 937 Liberty Avenue, a beautiful space that had been purchased and renovated (and then sadly lost) by the Associated Artist of Pittsburgh. I was excited to be invited, by curator Katherine Talkcott, to create a storefront installation for the festival in the first floor space. Previous Arts Festival exhibitions were held in outdoor temporary pavilions and had reminded me of school exhibitions at shopping malls. The move to the gallery space gave the show a professional look.
Detail (shoppers) L.R.
I came across these installation images today and thought about how the world has changed over the past nine years. To create Talking About the Weather, I walked around Downtown Pittsburgh listening for conversation. I overheard conversations of all types. I chatted with people at bus stops, street corners and crosswalks. Business people were on their phones during the day. Late at night, a wild and sometimes unsavory crowd roamed the shadowy sidewalks. I often encountered these characters, as I had obtained keys to enter the gallery and work at night.
Detail. L.R.
After recording bits of conversation in my sketchbook, I would then create a cartoon, doodle or puppet character of the person (with speech bubble) to add to the installation in the gallery. The installation consisted of a wooden framework, with moving parts to mimic the movement of the city. As I added more and more characters, people began gathering to see the growing installation.
Detail L.R.
Since I made this piece, I don’t encounter people (especially strangers) talking in public places as much. People who are waiting alone immediately pull out their portable electronics. Small talk, an art in itself, is becoming a thing of the past.
“If I ever get out of here, I’m going to Kathmandu!”
detail, power plant and puppet
“Who really cares?”
I created a collection of five wooden rod puppets (The Larryville Hipster Collection), for a group show at my friend Moshe Sherman’s new project space, Percolate, in Wilkinsburg, PA. The show opened in December of 2013. The closing reception is tonight.
Bluu and Ragu were stitched together just in time for their debut appearance at the 2013 Carnegie International Family Day on January 20th. The two made appearances in the Wade Guyton coat room installation, the Hall of Architecture and the Heinz Galleries at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
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Hugo Ball & Emmy Hennings traverse the battlefields of the Great War.
On January 16th, I presented a new show with collaborator Michael Cuccaro at the Carnegie Museum of Art, as part of their Culture Club programming for the 2013 Carnegie International. The fifteen-minute, Dada-inspired show was performed toy theatre-style in the Museum Café with a cast of newly crafted puppet characters including Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara and a drone. Sets for the production included a battlefield scene, the interior of the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, Switzerland, 1916 and Hugo Ball’s bedroom. The Carnegie Café was transformed into an installation for the International, making it an interesting venue for the event. Also performed that evening was Museum Piece: For Margo Lovelace, a puppetry performance by Paulina Olowska, performed by Kristen Barca and Joann Kielar.
Emmy Hennings performing a dance at the Cabaret Voltaire.
In the fall of 2012, I met Polish artist Paulina Olowska. She was visiting to plan her 2013 Carnegie International installation for the Carnegie Café. We talked about the beginnings of the Dada movement at the Cabaret Voltaire and her plans to transform the museum café into a cabaret atmosphere. When Olowska later invited me to work on the performance piece for her project (and exhibit a collection of my puppets), I began thinking about creating a show about the ideals of early Dada artists.
Dada founders Tristan Tzara and Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire.
It’s difficult to think about the trauma experienced by European artists living during World War I. What were artists to do at a time when humanity was pushed to the edge? The reality of war and suffering permeated everyday life. New, more efficient weapons, tanks and gasses were implemented. What were artists to do in this time of trauma? The Cabaret Voltaire was an outlet for artists and intellectuals to express their disgust, their needs and their aim to redefine art.
Tristan Tzara delivering his Dada Manifesto at the Cabaret Voltaire.
Today, wars are often managed by drones controlled from locations far from the battlefield. We watch football, go to the movies and get into arguments at the supermarket as wars are being waged halfway around the world. In developing this new puppet show, I thought about the iconic figure Hugo Ball, dressed in a shiny cone-shaped bishop’s outfit. I wondered what Ball, his wife Emmy Hennings and other Zurich Dadaists of 1916 would think about the world and warfare today.
Bedroom scene, as Ball is about to be visited by an errant drone from 2016.
The puppet show, Flight Out of Time (after Ball’s diaries), recreates the scene of The Cabaret Voltaire. A fantastical ending suggests a prophetic element in Ball’s prose. The show includes an adaptation of Tristan Tzara’s Dada Manifesto as well as a reenactment of Hugo Ball’s sound poetry.
A drone “flies out of time” from 2016.
Tom Sarver 