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Step Right
Up!
Come As You Are, Leave Forever Changed!
Experience a "Spectacle of
Enigmatic Kinetics and Shocking Sensations of Alarming Absurdity"
!
INDUSTRIAL CARNIVAL
MUSEUM
Don't miss the opening reception on
Friday, September 17th from 5-7PM
"Industrial
Carnival Museum," will open to the Sarasota community as one of the
exhibitions presented by Art Center Sarasota from September 17
through October 16th. This re-configured exhibition will feature
work from the original "Industrial Carnival", a one night event at the
Bustillo Cigar Factory in Tampa that drew a crowd of 700 attendees. Jeff
Stover a graduating art student at USF, along with other students and
Richard Beckman a USF professor will recreate the best of this evening to
tickle the imagination and perceptions of Sarasotans.
 Jeff Stover, the originator of the Tampa
experience will be exhibiting three of his machines. Along with Stover's
work will be work by numerous artists from Tampa Bay region including an
installation and performance piece by Experimental Skeleton, videos,
sculpture and mixed-media work by artists that conform to the carnival
theme of the fantastical and absurd. There will be a special guest
appearance of Bill Kearns and his "Cybernetic Salmon". Entertainment will
include live music by Chaotic Formula Orkestra. Opening night will feature
a carnival-esque atmosphere, where the machines are people and people are
machines and there is no line in between, where the "abominable snowman"
can be witnessed in Florida, and where the freak show begins with your
entrance into the Art Center Sarasota... where the show...the event...and
the performance meld into what will be forever remembered as the
"Industrial Carnival Museum."
The Carnies bark: "Come as you are. Leave
forever changed."
In her article "Industrial Carnival was weird,
but it sure was art," published May 8, 2004, Tampa Columnist SANDRA
THOMPSON, wrote: "The large room was packed with people, of course, but
also with a lot of machines that were very weird indeed. They had moving
parts and did various things, none of which were actually useful, but gave
a Jules Verne kind of feel to the room. There was a sideshow with photos
of freaks of nature, a barker selling plastic bottles of snake
oil…"
Richard Beckman seems to have helped inspire his students by
providing them with a challenging assignment. In his assignment, Beckman
instructed his students to produce a body sculpture that each was
"…required to enter and live in for the night of the
exhibition/event/performance. Furthermore, the [body sculpture] serves as
"…a vessel from which anything is possible and given the carnival-esque
atmosphere, it is the unknown performance behind the curtain that you -
the creator of this Frankenstein(ian) body sculpture - both witness and
attempt to choreograph."
Recent MFA graduate, Rachel Hoffman, will
perform on the night of the opening reception in a body sculpture that
combines masculine, feminine and animalistic characteristics. One of her
other contributions features imagery such as "active volcanoes,
carnivorous plants, terrible lizards, pink Chihuahuas, flesh-eating
insects, unidentified flying objects, and a host of other amazing
things".
Organizers of the "Industrial Carnival Museum" are Jeff
Stover and Richard Beckman. Exhibition curator is Joe Loccisano of Manatee
Community College.
For more information, contact Elizabeth Van
Riper- 954-1962 or
art@Vanriperonline.com or Jackie Cory at
365-2032
2 OCTOBER
2004
Open House, and Raku event on Saturday, 2 October
2004
Come meet over 20 workshop instructors and discuss and
view some of their work. We will also hold our first Raku event. The party
will be held outside. Bring the family. You will see all the steps
involved in creating beautiful Raku pottery. You can even decorate and
fire your own bowl. Admission will be free, but there will be a small
charge of $5 for each bowl. Click here for further
details.
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