slightly wonky

Well, it’s BALMY in BOSTON.  I think that we’re at around 80 deg F and 80% humidity.  SOUPY.  I feel like I am sticking to everything, and that’s not only a result of my poor housekeeping skills.  Has anyone else noticed that it’s difficult to get a dried Rice Krispy off of the floor?  Well, I have.  Thank god I don’t bother with manicures, or else our floor would be a minefield of dried krispies.

I stopped by the deCordova museum to see the work of Tony Feher.  Now, let me just preface this discussion (one sided, of course) by noting that I am not usually very interested in found object sculpture.  I know…I’m a philistine.  Anyway, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of  Feher’s work.

WELL…I LOVED IT.  LOOK AT THIS:

Mountain Home, Tony Feher, 2004, plastic containers

I know.  I KNOW what those are…but I love that they’ve taken on this ethereal form.  They look so pure and delicate, and yet solid.  It’s a modern Mayan temple in miniature…well, not really.   Here is an overview of the main room of his work:

Tony Feher at the deCordova Museum

Each piece is quite simple, typically using only one or two types of objects, but the reconfiguration is fascinating.

Tony Feher, Sharadiant, 2000, mop and broom handles with rope

I love this too.  It makes me think of a Dan Flavin piece that’s turned off and seen during the day.

Dan Flavin

I know…I know…they are NOT even MARGINALLY related.  What can I say?  These are the associations that I come up with.  Speaking of associations…what do you think of this?:

Tony Feher, Come Out And Play Stephen Jay, 2013, painter’s tape

Yes.  That’s tape.  TAAAAPE.  Now THAT made me think of Van Gogh’s Starry Night or wavelite crystals…

Swirly!

I’m sure that you’d rather see more of Feher’s work, rather than my bizarre and boring associations.  Fine.

Tony Feher at the deCordova Museum

This is Feher’s installation in that great stairway at the deCordova.  This space is pure genius (thanks to William Rawn Associates), as it creates this really unusual installation space.  I love seeing what different artists do here.  Feher has taken two liter bottles and filled them with colored liquid.  It’s often hard to get a good photo of this space, as it’s so narrow.  It’s 21st century stained glass, right?

Tony Feher, 8 White Elements, 2001 and Honcho Grid 1, 1999

Yes, you are looking at a tower of styrofoam packaging.  I can’t help but think of an architectural model…perhaps for the New Museum in NYC?  Hell, Yes!  (that expletive relates to the New Museum…I’m not normally so brash.)  The grid in the background is made from plastic straws and polyester thread.  BRILLIANT!

I love how simple and elemental his pieces are.  I love how these mundane objects feel truly transformed through their reconfiguration.  He doesn’t cut/break/bend the objects…he just puts them together so that they form a new, single object.  There’s such clarity to his work.

Speaking of clarity…oh wait, I never have clarity.   Nevermind.

I’ll segue by my household’s own transformation of the mundane into…well, it’s still all mundane.  My son is obsessed with Godzilla.  A friend of mine is moving to TX, and she let me take some of her boys’ old toys.  WELL, we got a small Godzilla set…and the rest is history.  Godzilla is the perfect combination of dinorsaur-ish creature PLUS a force of ridiculous destruction/demolition.  Greaaaaat.

My son doesn’t seem at all put off by the idea that this is simply a person in a lizard suit lumbering around a model city.  Perhaps that’s because he’s used to me lumbering around the living room, stepping on Lego buildings, and growling?  I have better skin than Godzilla, thankfully.   (Check in with me again if I make it to 90, and I may not be able to say that, though.)

This is a drawing that my son did in homage to the great beast:

Let me describe this for you…the lower left has a monster truck parked next to a skyscraper.  The tall thing on the right is Godzilla’s leg, with monster toenail.  Yes, he’s SOOO HUGE that he can’t even fit on the page.  Priceless.

I’m also hoping that my toenails did not provide inspiration for this drawing…sigh.