Adan Vallecillo at the Factory

Review by Andrew Steinhauer

Jokey Art, Highbrow Art & Stigmas

“Most of the time I don’t have much fun. The rest of the time I don’t have any fun at all.” by comedian Woody Allen.

A young Honduran artist, Adan Vallecillo’s exhibition at the avant-garde art gallery Image Factory cryptically titled “The Asepsic’s Power” has to be one of the loopiest, oddball shows venued in Belize. It’s challenging stuff and I’m certainly intrigued by Mr. Vallecillo’s chutzpah in showing such crazy artwork. Shades of the heyday of Marcel Duchamp and his motley crew of anarchists- the Dadaists.

The Duchamp connection is a key to decoding Vallecillo’s work. Duchamp questioned the parameters of what does and does not constitute “art”; oftentimes in a punning, sarcastic way. Duchamp poked fun at art’s high falutin’ seriousness and ostentatious self-importance. He picked the nouveau riche collector’s inflated ego while mocking the elitist museum mindset of fine art.

In 1915 Duchamp exhibited in a sophisticated art gallery a snow shovel he purchased in a hardware store and humorously titled it, “In Advance of the Broken Arm”. Many volumes have been penned by art historians on the importance of this so-called “Readymade”. The rap goes that the Shovel blurs the line between art and life. The utilitarian Shovel’s displacement in effect becomes a crucial component in its content. Historian Nesbit writes, “In the ready-mades, Duchamp seized control of the dialogue dictated by the shop window: the model is taken out of circulation, often given an absurd title, hung in a limbo, and effectively silenced. This shovel will never be used, bent, rusted, or fall obsolete” (“Ready-Made” 61-2). Humor became a deadly weapon in destroying traditional notions about art and the creative act. Similarly Vallecillo’s art also doesn’t shy away from a humorous spin on the codified norms in the world of contemporary art.

In the multi-part piece, titled “Festin II”, Vallecillo nails 20 porcelain Chinese soup spoons in a straight line across the wall of the gallery which is painted jet black. In each spoon is glued a human tooth. The whole shebang is melodramatically spotlighted. “Festin II” can be interpreted to be a glib, tongue-in-cheek (or is it tooth in spoon) switcheroo on the traditional functions of utilitarian objects (spoons) and body parts (teeth). Vallecillo reverses the expected, making the spoons engulf the teeth instead of teeth (in the mouth) engulfing the spoon. Reverse expectations tend to throw one off balance conceptually; resulting in a kind of ridiculousness that roams in the domain of humor.

For me any artist that wades into the rip-tides of humor has to be admired. Simply because humor ain’t easy. The dynamics of humor are tricky at best and can’t be readily systematized. The comedic conundrum that any form of jokiness has to contend with is: What tickles one funny-bone, offends the next. One man’s joke is the next man’s sacrilege. “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” was allegedly the deathbed remark of British actor-comedian Sir Donald Wolfit, and humor in the realm of art is at least twice as difficult as humor on stage. Why? Because for inexplicable reasons too much art is just so self righteous, staid and up tight. For some reason when many artists create their work the end result is gloomy and portentous. It’s as if the proverbial stick was stuck up a place the sun doesn’t shine. “Yeaaaaagggggh!!!” to quote the Howard Dean scream.

Other artists that have created significant art within the context of humor are: Phillip Guston and Keith Haring’s cartoon paintings; Vito Acconci’s performance pieces like “Seedbed” (1972); Alex Katz’s fantasy Papier-Mâché environments, Gilbert & George’s parody vaudeville skits and William Wegman’s stagy photos of his Weimaraner imitating human -gestures are a few that come to mind.

Other pieces in “The Asepsic’s Power” that simultaneously tickle the funny bone and provoke are “Atrapasuenos”, 2005 (Dream Catcher), a combination ink drawing with colander attached to the bottom edge; “Explosion”, 2006, that whimsically juxtaposes a typical touristy souvenir sea shell and a handful of Q-tips fanning outward in a configuration reminiscent of a cartoon bomb detonating; “Protesis I thru III”, 2006, which is like a three part homage to the happy homemaker/ contented gardener with a witty contrast between real object and depicted object where the rendered image comes off with more veracity than the actual object. That series lets it all hangs out.

The two strongest pieces in this ultimately strong show are “Silencio” 2005, and “Los Amantes”, 2005. “Silencio” incorporates six small plastic containers, cotton and pen and ink drawings hung vertically on the wall. The top plastic container is filled with cotton and has a meticulous drawing of a telephone across the surface. A rendering of a spiral telephone chord snakes over the next lower four containers ending up on the bottom container with a schematic drawing of a horn (speaker) depicting waves of sound blaring from it. A visual “shaggy dog” tale.

“Los Amantes” (The Lovers, 2005) is the eerie knock out in the exhibit. The piece is composed of two toot brushes, one red and one blue, sans bristles lying on a shelf connected by a handful of drooping dental floss strands. Highly imaginative use of visual metaphor. A sadly amusing take on the intimacy and transitory nature of love.

Some art purists might find Vallecillo’s sensibility a tad too frivolous. Might find his work a little too iconoclastic; too unconventional. Some might feel humor as no place in highbrow art. For those traditionalists that prefer their art straight lased and sweet, to paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake”.

Vallecillo has a way with turning usual preconceptions on their ear, and in so doing creating a jokey displacement on highbrow art conventions.