Amusing the Zillion

Studio Visit: Philomena Marano of the Coney Island Hysterical Society

October 26, 2010 by Tricia

Philomena Marano with cut paper installation Giant Lolly, Homage to Philip's Candy. Photo © Tricia Vita

Earlier this month, we visited the Gowanus studio shared by Coney Island Hysterical Society co-founders Philomena Marano and Richard Eagan. In this two-part post, ATZ’s photos are interspersed with the artists’ own words about their Coney-inspired artwork.

Lately I’ve been considering one of the strains that run through both of our works- something I coined as a “Fool the Guesser” concept- Loosely defined: things seem like one thing, but may be another -perhaps bordering on “optical illusion” but not in the strictest sense- more like a form of visual play.

Eagan has a series of painted target constructions which take on a kinetic quality as one changes their point of view, and I have work in which it is really tough to decipher the medium it was created in- printed, paper or painted… thus summoning a sense of wonderment or an invitation to a guessing game.

We’re planning to group these selected works and hope to find a venue for an exhibition.

My new PLAY FASCINATION piece actually revisits an earlier set of works with the same name, but it’s more “unhinged.” In this piece I used a perception shifting ploy. What seems to be flat is actually sculptural. Is it caving in or blowing out? – there is no “one way” to view it.

To create it I made a cut paper composition which I then cut up into pieces. Next I reassembled them so that the pieces sit on different levels, some tilted inward, some outward and some level, thus adding dimension and delirium.

I originally borrowed the type face I use in my PLAY FASCINATION works from a decaying metal sign that hung on the side of the Faber’s Fascination building on Surf Avenue. In 1990 I recomposed the elements and created 5 similar works with the same title; one in cut paper and four hard edged paintings. I recall viewers engaged in examining the work as it hung side by side in an exhibit, wondering or “guessing,” is this paper, painted or printed?

This “fun house” or” magic show of illusion” concept appeals to me because it parallels my subject matter. I think it’s time to explore & embrace this unique Coney Island essence a bit further- to pay tribute to it.

Related posts on ATZ...

October 26, 2010: Studio Visit: Richard Eagan of the Coney Island Hysterical Society

October 1, 2010: Oct 2: Coney Island Hysterical Art on Gowanus Artists Studio Tour

September 19, 2010: Art of the Day: Play Fascination by Philomena Marano

October 4, 2009: The Wonder of Artist Philomena Marano’s Wonder Wheel

Posted in art | Tagged Coney Island, Coney Island Hysterical Society, Philomena Marano | 4 Comments »

Studio Visit: Richard Eagan of the Coney Island Hysterical Society

October 26, 2010 by Tricia

Artist Richard Eagan's lovely alter ego Kay Sera with Oceanic Baths. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

In 1985, the artists of the Coney Island Hysterical Society created and operated a Spookhouse behind Nathan’s, exhibited artwork at Sideshows by the Seashore and had a group show at LaMama. Society co-founders Richard Eagan and Philomena Marano continue to collaborate on Coney-themed art. A recent visit to the Gowanus studio shared by Eagan and Marano inspired this two-part post…

I began my career as a visual artist with a series of dreams about Coney island. Ten in one year (1978) – Steeplechase, The Thunderbolt, many locales, and I realized I had hand skills to evoke those places. Eventually I understood that’s what artists did. It snuck up on me. Generally speaking, I launched into a series of realist-based portraits of many of the places I had known in Coney Island. I needed to bring these places to life. Although my work has developed and changed through the years, I still return to the architectural portraiture of my early work.

Oddly, though, one of my very first pieces was an installation for “Tricks and Treats at the World in Wax Musee” curated by Dick Zigun back in… 1980? I filled a display case with a piece evoking the demolition of the Steeplechase Pavilion of Fun, titled “I Must Have Been Dreaming”- the curving space of the Panama Slide was filled with jagged, broken shards of wood.

During the Spookhouse Project of 1984-85, I began a series of paintings with bulls-eye imagery, and I imagined a few of them might want to have those shards bursting through the picture plane into real space, as if a wall had exploded out. Though they were not executed then, I returned to the idea in a series of small 12″ square canvasses in the 1990’s. They were an immediate hit, and I sold quite a few of those.

The short hop to combining the Coney work with the exploding architecture was a no-brainer once I accepted that the Coney Island of my childhood was imploding, burning, and would never return. I didn’t foresee the Thor paradigm, of course, but I needed to create pieces expressing my anguish over the ruins of my beloved playground. Hence the work with exploding shards, broken glass, and faded, ghostly signage. “Oceanic Baths” (not an actual Coney place name) was the first in this series, and the piece that helped me combine constructed sculptural work with abstract expressionist-style paintwork and pop culture imagery.

I expect I will be working the various styles in different combinations for some time to come as the future of the place of my inspiration and dreams unfolds.

Photos from the Demolition: Historic Bank of Coney Island

October 25, 2010 by Tricia

Bank of Coney Island Demolition. October 21, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Last week, the doomed Bank of Coney Island had holes punched in its wall by Joe Sitt’s demo men in prep for the installation of demolition scaffolding. The northeast corner of West 12th and Bowery has taken on the brutal look of a torture chamber. The victim is the 87-year-old building itself, the first of four historic buildings in Coney Island marked for demolition by Thor Equities.

As we wrote in “Photo of the Day: The Bank of Coney Island, Now & Then” (Oct 14, 2010):

Shame on Thor Equities for not even responding to the written pleas of individuals and organizations to re-purpose the building or at least save the facade. Shame on the City of New York for sacrificing the building by rezoning the parcel for a 30-story high rise in July 2009.

Real estate speculator Joe Sitt bought the Bank of Coney Island building in 2005 for $3 million and kept it vacant. ATZ knows at least two potential tenants whose proposals for leasing and rehabbing the building went nowhere. Alas, Joe Sitt’s price to lease the property– $500,000– was too steep. Perhaps Thor did not want to be encumbered by tenants or leases because the building was marked for demolition from the moment it was purchased?

Bank of Coney Island Demolition Scaffolding. October 25, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Thanks to Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy for documenting this unfortunate situation in his flickr set. “They built the scaffolding on the West 12th Street side today,” says Bruce, who notes that the police stopped to ask a passersby what was written on the permits posted on the wall. Though the signs are newly posted, what they have to say is not news: the Department of Buildings issued the demolition permit on August 13.

During Thor Equities’ 40 days of demolition, ATZ will continue to post documentary photos. Help us keep this disgraceful demo in the public eye by sending newsworthy pix and info to hello[AT]triciavita[DOT]com. Hey, maybe a sympathetic insider will send us a photo from inside the torture chamber! Be careful…