(For John Connelly Gallery, and Dearraindrop)
1946: the giddy and well attuned feel the first tremors of a new volcanic North American sensibility. From the postwar surplus come new possibilities in glut, gratuity and vacuum tube radiation. Some sourpuss highbrows denounce the infectious, neo-geo aesthetic as a new barbarism as cheap, decadent, and unserious but this only speaks in its favor. By 1947, the schism is complete.
1963: Clandestine groups hold basement meetings throughout the country to discuss the future of a new American Mythos. They see no reason, given the great jabbering landscape around them the droning jukeboxes, smell-o-vision cinema, wild-eyed cartoon cats, paper placemats with cowboys and Indians and little red riding hood that they should pass on their candidacy for higher myth and metaphor.
1982: More questions are asked. Should the new Virgin Mary be Barberella or Vampira or some amalgam of the two? Who is the Michelin Man and what are his intentions? Probably in league with Dr. Doom. Is there a connection between cartoons and drug abuse? This is not about American pop culture at face value; it is about building something from its unconscious dream work. History is pilfered. The line between Life and Fantasyland are first blurred then lost forever.
1987: Fun Factories churn round-the-clock. Colors bleed. The Trix rabbit usurps Sisyphus in the collective consciousness of the United States. Many feel betrayed to learn that Doctor J is not a medical doctor. Nevertheless, they feel sure that there is salvation in lights, cameras, and action. Electricity, plastic, maximalism, over stimuli. A race of pacmen and raybarbees shall inherit the earth.
1991: American children and other middle class castoffs, in swift bursts of Ritalin synthesis, start making the most their surroundings. They hope that America might be able to usher the world into a Second Childhood through reverb, overkill, and hyper meaning. Million headed, shape shifting avatars depicting Shiva, She-Ra, Sun-Ra, and that guy from the Micro Machines commercials. Krofft puppets demand civil rights and liberties. The search for Animal Chin continues.
2003: Due to disastrous jolts and quakes in the space-time continuum, the secret orders begin making themselves manifest. God comes down from heaven to check it out. Its a lot to take in all at once, He says.
- Brandon Joyce, PhD