It’s a little unusual for me to make road trips this late in the year – I like the road best while it’s still warm outside. Yet I’ve hit the asphalt a lot this autumn. I’ve been sharing my Halloween trip with you lately, a trip down US 40 and the National Road in eastern Indiana. A particular friend and I make a point to take a road trip together every year, and this was our 2009 excursion. We spent most of our day in Wayne County, exploring Richmond and Centerville and spending a little money in the antique shops in Cambridge City. Also, the Michigan Road Historic Byway project has been heating up as my partner in the effort, blogger Hoosier Reborn, and I have been building support in Michigan Road counties south of Indianapolis. So I’ve spent a little time on the Michigan Road recently, and you know I love to do that.

2009 may go down for me as the year I began noticing vintage signs. I’ve already written one sign post (get it? sign post? signpost? I kill me!) this year, about the signage along the National Road in Vigo County. Here I go again!

My National Road friend and I got hungry midafternoon while antiquing in Cambridge City. So we stopped for very tasty tenderloin sandwiches at the Silver Dollar Lounge. The french fries were hot and crisp, too! Thee neon portion of their sign was lit.

Down the street a bit is the Drive-In Liquors sign, some of its neon also lit.

After Hoosier Reborn and I finished extolling the virtues of a Michigan Road Historic Byway to people interested in tourism and historic preservation in Madison the other day, I was hungry and went off in search of lunch. Seems like every other time I’ve been to Madison, Hinkle’s Hamburgers has been closed. But this day not only was it open, but their sign was on. I snapped this shot and then went in for a double cheeseburger. Mm mm!

After lunch, I walked Madison’s main drag for a little while snapping shots. This great neon sign lurks quietly a half block north of Main Street on Mulberry Street. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a neon Independent Order of Odd Fellows sign before, and I’ve seen a lot of Odd Fellows buildings in my travels. I wonder when it was last lit.

I followed the Michigan Road home from Madison. The road followed two routes through Ripley County. The original 1830s route remains a lovely drive along a narrow country road. But when the automobile came to prominence in the early 20th century, Michigan Road signs went up on a parallel route slightly to the east, along what is now US 421 through Versailles (that’s ver-sales to you, bud) and Osgood. In Versailles, the Moon-Lite Motel’s sign was partially lit, so I stopped for a photo.

The last time I passed through Osgood, the Damm Theatre was still undergoing restoration, and its sign was down. This isn’t the original sign, but it’s a nice reproduction.

The Michigan Road passes by a Coca-Cola bottling plant on Shelbyville’s north side, just before it crosses the Big Blue River. I was delighted to find the neon sign over its front door lit.

If you like signs, too, then check out my twilight visit to Logansport, Indiana.

Va prezentam un alt site al SC SF STORE EXIM SRL, Saibe . ro (www.saibe.ro).
Nu uitati ca la Store gasiti o gama larga de organe de asamblare (piulite, saibe, suruburi etc) si intotdeauna veti avea de unde alege!
Va asteptam pe http://www.storeinc.ro – siteul principal.

Va prezentam un alt site al SC SF STORE EXIM SRL, Piulita . ro (www.piulita.ro).
Nu uitati ca la Store gasiti o gama larga de organe de asamblare (piulite, saibe, suruburi etc) si intotdeauna veti avea de unde alege!
Va asteptam pe http://www.storeinc.ro – siteul principal.

1 – Calcinha e sutiã temático de golf...

Se você é um amante do esporte de fresco golf e não pode ficar um instante sequer sem pensar na bolinha aerada, compre esse conjunto de duas peças feitas ou lingerie em linguagem mais fresca pelo Designer Mio Destino para a tua mulher se tiver uma!…

Uma das vantagens é que ele incentiva o cara a colocar o taco no buraco que realmente interessa!

2 – Calcinha que vem menstruada de fábrica

Estilistas são realmente doidos varridos criaturas iluminadas.. essa roupa é obra de um deles… é auto explicativo!

3 – Sutiã “pauzinho”

Esse sutiã tem um fundo ecológico… hashi reutilizável no lugar de talheres descartáveis de madeira que devastam árvores e mais árvores… com o peculiar nome de “My Chopsticks Bra”…

Bom, como a idéia é ter um pauzinho não-descartável para ajudar a moça se alimentar, você pega o seu, esfrega nas tetas dela e ajuda a colocar o arroz na boca da moça…

4 – Calçola que emagrece!

A invenção é japa… Roupas intimas que ajudam o emagrecimento! Quanto mais você anda mais você perde peso… me lembra a invenção portuguesa da pilula que ajuda a matar a sede: Beba a pilula com um litro de água e o efeito é imediato!

5 – Calcinha fundo liberado!

Feita pelo designer Nona de Samim, inspirado pela França do século 16, quando a senhora não usava nada sob seus vestidos…

Sábio rapaz esse Nona…

Essa não tem como ficar freada! E não cria problemas para o casal que precisa explorar as coisas com rapidez e segurança… Além de que se o kibe crú não caiu legal, basta sentar no vaso e ser feliz!

6 – Cinto de castidade Hi-Tech

Todo nerd gosta de segurança e confiabilidade… Essa calcinha é a última palavra em tecnologia, entretanto nada garante que a moça não aceite outros cadastros e assim acesso aos arquivos internos!

Um modelo mais simples, para usuários de celulares e IPhones pode ser encontrado também…

7 – Calcinha e sutiã pisca pisca

Natal chegando, meia na chaminé, as velas, árvore de Natal decorada com bolas coloridas, neve falsa, estrelas e… pisca-pisca…

Indo na onda, porque não decorar a mulher amada assim?

Claro que não iria tardar aparecer uma doida psicótica mulher que sugerisse que poderia ter a versão masculina dessa boiolice peça intima…

8 – Sutiã para contrato nupcial…

Tava demorando pra alguma japa aparecer de novo não é?

Tem um sutiã que conta com um cronometro-nupcial… sim, é isso mesmo, um cronometro que impede avanços de sinal da parte do noivo a menos que ele coloque o bambolê de otário anel no slot existente acima do relógio… coisas de japonês!

9 – Sutiã a prova de apagão e blecaute

Nada de perder aquela sacanagem porque tá tudo escuro… a imagem fala por si só…

10 – Calcinha confeitada

Vale até mesmo confeitar a parceira… esta calcinha é feita de um doce similar ao das cobertura de bolos e tem apenas 60 calorias… mas cuidado, a torta de morango pode de repente ter gosto de bacalhau estragado!

11 – Sutiã de metal

Esse é a prova de peito caído!

Com uma estrutura de alumínio, que o torna leve e outras sucatas ele resiste a ação brutal da gravidade sobre a peitaria feminina!

Amo moda praia, amo gente que vai bonita pro sol – e não perua com muito ouro – e amaria achar o biquini mais confortável do mundo e que vista bem no corpo! Não sei como são esses da coleção nova da Lenny mas são lindos – olha o neon! – e achei o modelo perfeito pra quase todos os tipos de corpos! Parece fininho e firme ao mesmo tempo! Quero muito porque tenho ombros largos e adoro a parte de cima com alças retas! E o maiô “Borat”? rs

Quero esse biquiniiii, grr

Pra usar no fim-de-semana no iate. urrumm…

Gente, dá muita vontade de usar!

Vende aqui?

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

Neon

The studies for this particular work is described in detail in a previous post STAY FOREVER, and for this reason the background to this current manifestation of Stay Forever, will not be discussed here. Which suits the purpose of this post for there is much I aim at going over with Stay Forever, from the installation within, Maybe, In the End, It Was a Dream, to the material used, as well as other issues that arose for me whilst spending time within the space throughout the duration of the show.

I always associated, through studies, to installing the neon in MITEIWAD, this work to be a happy work. The bright colourful neon flickering in a room, music sub-culture referent; Ween’s 2000 single “Stay Forever”, and the usage of neon in clubs and disco environments, added to a sense of visual aroma that would be all encompassing and beautiful. After install I still believe all these qualities were in fact present, but with time, and consideration of the work within the exhibition it was a part of, a more sinister reading began to permeate.

As mentioned in the previous post Bridget Pistol Sex Riley, this work was going to be installed directly on a white wall in the gallery, with its own space, so as to not disrupt other works through its flickering and visual luminosity. Whilst covering the wall in tape, and understanding from here he enormity of the space I was working in, I decided Stay Forever really had to be erected directly onto Bridget Pistol Sex Riley. This came out of a need to break the continuity of the wall drawing, but also to allow the neon to be placed directly by the door that is the exit to Maybe, In the End, It Was A Dream. With this positioning, I believe the registration of the work for the viewer changed dramatically.

Clive Humphreys, one of my MFA supervisors, described Stay Forever as an interior work, in that it pertained to environments that exist as an inside space: clubs, shops, and music venues, support this. The work was registered by the viewer within the entire space, but upon exiting there was an engagement that called attention to the function of leaving, and the work at this level acted as a plea not to leave the space, to in fact, stay forever…please. This was never an intention in the conception of the work, from drawings, studies, and finally into its neon production, but with time, being present within the exhibition as a whole, these further associations began to develop.

The clear disco/club component, coupled with the adjacent Elvis projection, forced the neon work into a commentary, or narrative on this culture that I was seeking to obtain, but not necessarily with this individual work. Su Ballard’s perception of the ‘bleeding’ that occurred between the works, affected the way Stay Forever was ultimately perceived. If ‘stay forever’ is an impossibility, an oxymoron, it certainly is a possibility within celebrity, or in the minds of one who wants to be famous, the Elvis imagery performed this completely; through fame, it is possible to indeed ‘stay forever’ outside of the physical.

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

An installation within Maybe, In the End, It Was a Dream, titled AM, also played off this idea of staying forever, in the recent death of celebrity Deejay, DJ Am, who died of an accidental overdoes in New York. Here again is the bleeding quality of the works on one and other, where the context and proximity to each had a direct reading on seemingly disparate elements within the show. In fact, I found the relationship to these two works quite strong, and AM affected the way I looked at, and engaged with, Stay Forever significantly. There could really be multiple reasons for this. The first and most straightforward is that AM is a blinding, epileptic and fractured installation of broken objects, light and scaffolding, and in this context Stay Forever is a sort of reprieve within the space. Even though this work itself is visually jarring, with bright neon and flickering movement, this was insignificant within the same room as AM. The second, and more interesting for me, not only for this show, but with future works also, is the cross-over, or bleeding these works espoused upon each throughout the entire installation. AM in fact is not a dark work, but with so much happening visually within the space, there was just too much stimuli for the show not to be seen as dark. Like the party sub-culture AM was referring to, there was excess, and Stay Forever was ultimately another element in that excess.

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

Actual install of Stay Forever was initially going to be horizontal, and sitting low to the ground to maximise reflection from the polished concrete floor. With Bridget Pistol Sex Riley on the wall, it was evident the neon work would need maximum presence within the enormity of the space, and the tape wall drawing itself. Moving the individual letters around the floor, constructing a mental image of the possibilities on the wall, became an exercise in understanding text as form, not just about words being displayed. Here I decided the form would be STAY/FOR/EVER stacked in a square format (painting) that takes on a significant amount of wall space. The transformers were set so that one word, or section of the text, illuminated in sequence while the other two remained unlit, the glass being clear, was not visually present whilst in this non-illuminated state. Through the lighting, a minor visual narrative occurred, positive and negative interspersed in creating a singular cohesive image.

As mentioned previously, Clive Humphreys rightfully referred to this work as interior, and I am very much concerned with this interior type of space within the context of this show, and my MFA at large. It simplifies the issue too much in stating that the fact the exhibition in inside a room, that the space is also interior. We’ve really got two types of interior here (and in talking about interior, one must also look at exterior purely through its exclusion from an interior). One is through physicality: within a room, inside: whilst the other being an insular, personal or psychological space. The former relates to the confines of an environment. Within this environment are tools, and props that facilitate the type of event being generated. In this case it was disco/club culture, so the material here is laser light and disco balls, the material within the exhibition signified this, and this allows the audience to enter immediately the space of that environment. The neon here is a part of that interior domain, whether that be inside a club venue, inside a shop for advertising, or outside a shop or club advertising the type of space that is inside. This was enhanced within Maybe, In the End, It Was a Dream where what should have been outside through the windows, was a reflection of the inside, keeping the work, the environment, clearly within an interior.

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

This is where the inside/outside becomes interesting. Stay Forever was positioned to receive best access from the outside. Two window panels the height of the walls faced entry into the School of Art campus, where this work could clearly be seen illuminating. This decision did refer to signage, and in a sense was a part of an appeal to the outside, but always with the intention of the audience, being with the work on the inside. This is where my painting mentality is clear, for a painting is made (murals aside) to be within a space, I am not a sculptor, so I can’t so much see work I make as existing with an exterior space.

Another way of thinking about this, and less formed or articulate on my part, is the psychological space certain environments create. My research within this area, particularly with Neil Nehring’s Popular Music, Gender, and Postmodernism: Anger Is an Energy, is with sub-cultural environments, or movements facilitating social cohesion through a psychological exterior. In other words, the kid who is at home, listening to her ‘strange’ music and dressing weird, finds a commonality within such groupings. Punk, Rave’s, Disco, Metal, Doof’s, or whatever act as a forum for like minded social unity, and act as a place where real exterior, Otherness can be achieved psychologically through this environment that has the ability to locate one outside themselves, even if just for a while.

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

Photo credit: Max Bellamy

Neons all day, everyday ’til Spring. 

With my Spring fever setting in, so much creative stimulation has occurred. To calm it down a notch, I’ve decided to incorporate some Spring looks now with the help of Alexander Wang. My inspiration is his Spring 2009 collection color palette. Mixing and matching saturated jackets, shorts, bandage dresses and shiny black underpinnings for a dose of downtown cool without looking too South Beach circa 1989 is the goal.

I usually could care less about artcars/artbikes but this one is really well done, clean, pleasing esthetically.

Wilson Brothers.