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Art of the Day: John Dunivant’s Bizarre Midway

Posted in art, Events, tagged Detroit, Halloween, John Dunivant, The Lodge Gallery, Theatre Bizarre on October 4, 2013| 3 Comments »

John Dunivant at the Lodge Gallery in New York City, through October 12, 2013

Once upon a time, there was an enchanted amusement park, hidden on the edge of a ragged city. For one night every year, this secret kingdom made itself known and sprang to life with fire and music and dance. – until the day it was exposed – and cast out.

The Expatriate Parade began as a single sketch of a scapegoat with a ferris wheel on its back. It bore my burden as it was driven from its home by an unfeeling and unseen power. This sketch led to many more, and the resulting parade of drawings – with its ceaseless forward motion in spite of the ever changing circumstances of the moment – led me to reflect on my own life. –John Dunivant

A few years before Detroit’s Michigan State Fair, the oldest in the nation, closed forever, I had a blast working a game on the midway. “It’s Crazy Ball Fun Time! You pick the colors the crazy ball picks the winners. We’re giving it all away today at the Michigan State Fair!” Friends who lived in Detroit’s suburbs wouldn’t venture to 7 Mile and Woodward Avenue to visit, which helps explain why the fair’s attendance had plummeted to a mere 217,000.

Meanwhile, across the street, artist John Dunivant spent a decade building what he calls an abandoned theme park using iconography from Coney Island and other places. In this video by Makezine, you’ll see a Hell’s Mouth sign that takes its inspiration from the neon THRILLS sign at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. The artist lists natural history museums, dioramas, Halloween, souvenir postcards, the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, roadside attractions, reliquaries and religious iconography, and traveling carnivals among his obsessions and fascinations.

The drug wars in Dunivant’s neighborhood made it possible for his friend Ken Poirer to buy up property and once a year, on Halloween, their midway came to life with a phantasmagorical underground party called “Theatre Bizarre.” In addition to elaborately costumed performers, there was an operating Ferris Wheel and a homemade roller coaster. In 2010, the same year the state fair shut down, Dunivant’s illegal amusement rides and funhouses were discovered by city authorities and shut down for code violations.

John Dunivant’s “The Expatriate Parade,” a series of paintings and bronzes inspired by the closure of Theatre Bizarre, is on view through October 12 at the Lodge Gallery at 131 Chrystie Street on New York’s Lower East Side. The artist will give a talk on Saturday, October 5, at 2 pm.

Yet Theatre Bizarre lives on, at a new location –Detroit’s Masonic Temple–and won a $100,000 grant from the Knight Foundation for fostering the arts. This year the party is set for October 18 and 19. A documentary film is also in the works–here’s the splendid trailer…

Art of the Day: Inversion by Joseph Zito

Posted in art, tagged Joseph Zito, Lennon Weinberg, mechanized sculpture, sculpture on September 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Inversion, 2012 by Joseph Zito. Studio view © Joseph Zito via http://www.josephzito.com

In the catalogue for Joseph Zito’s current exhibition at Lennon Weinberg, a mechanized sculpture resembling the ghost of a kiddie airplane ride appears with a quote from Kierkegaard: “Life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards.” In the gallery, Inversion, turns oh so slowly, in reverse, to the musical accompaniment of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, played backwards. Constructed of hydrostone, steel, aluminum, and a motor, this otherworldly and evocative piece is thirteen feet in diameter. On the wall, Untitled (Clock), which looks like a model for a kiddie boat ride, also operates counter-clockwise.

Joseph Zito was born in 1957 in Brooklyn where he lives and works. The exhibit, which opened in June, closes this Saturday.

Joseph Zito: “Tempus Fugit, New Sculptures and Works on Paper,” through September 14, 2013 at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 114 West 25th St, New York, NY. Phone 212-941-0012.

Rare & Vintage: Voltess, the Girl Who Defies Electricity

Posted in art, Artifacts, tagged electra, Electric Girl, Millard & Bulsterbaum, sideshow banner, Voltess on July 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

Vintage Sideshow Banner: Voltess, The Girl Who Defies Electricity circa 1930. Millard & Bulsterbaum, 2894 W 8th St. Coney Island via Urban Country

This vintage Millard and Bulsterbaum banner for “Voltess, The Girl Who Defies Electricity” was painted for Sam Wagner’s World Circus Sideshow in Coney Island. Variously known as Electra, Electricia and Voltara, the act features a girl who is said to be able to withstand high voltage and shoot sparks from her fingertips due to having been struck by lightning. The banner, which measures approximately eight by five, is offered for sale by Urban Country.

Algernon Millard and John Bulsterbaum established their Coney Island shop around 1915 at 2894 W 8th Street and were in business through the Depression. Their ads proclaimed “We Paint Banners That Get Top Money for Carnivals and Circus.” The studio was credited with introducing liberal use of orange paint and bold lines that made their banners visible from clear across the midway.