BY PATRICIA DUFF
Jan. 23, 2014
If you want to see something funny, something hare-brained, something a little Never Never Land scrappy — try the “Near-Earth Objects, a Space Museum” art show.
It’s visual art + theater; and it’s some super imaginative stuff. Get down to the Bayview Cash Store and catch the next tour of Richard Evans’ “Near Earth Objects, a Space Museum” at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25.
Marian Myszkowski and Shelley Hartle take the roles of the docents, or more specifically, the “indocents,” and improvise their way through a hilarious tour of the Space Museum, dedicated to Commander Dexter T. Rose, Jr. and his mission deep into space. (The whole docent routine is hilarious, which matches the show’s whimsy and its maverick sense of fun.)
And the names of the pieces alone are entertaining in themselves. Here are few: “Destination Grover’s Mule,”“No Big Dada,”“Frolicking Nikki,” “Genetically Modified Garden Hose,”“Ed Wood Lunch Brake,” “Poor Little Rich Boy (Mortal Coile and Pawse,” and “The Essence of Obsolescence.”
“Ms. Myszkowski” and “Ms. Loreen,” bicker and vie for attention from the crowd with a game of one-upsmanship, as they make their way through eight or nine of the sculptures, in a show of more than 30 installations made by Evans from found objects and re-purposed materials.
The sculptures combine a rabid inventiveness with satire, as both Ms. M and Ms. Loreen guide the audience through the dramatic and terribly romantic story of a brave astronaut explorer, the poor dead Commander Dexter T. Rose, and his epic journey aboard the Fracking rover “Enigma” to the planet Clever Dwarf Four (aka MaR minus S). During his time on MaR-S, Commander Rose became obsessed with collecting discards of an earlier civilization. With these materials he established the first art colony on that planet. Heart-wrenching, too, is the love he left behind in Tapioca Flower, when Commander Rose dedicated his life to a mission not entirely accomplished.
This sculptural spectacle is the kind of imaginative world only the coolest kids dream up, the Peter Pans who never lost that sense of playfulness. Evans’ has created a wonderful, crazy, romantic, rebellious show, full of pure artistic panache, made complete by the zany antics of the two indocent divas. Hilarious.
Last chance for the free docent tour is 2 p.m. this Saturday. Don’t miss it.
The Bayview Cash Store is located at 5603 Bayview Road in Langley.
“Near-Earth Objects” was curated by Marian Myszkowski and presented by Goosefoot, a non-profit community development organization. Visit www.goosefoot.org for more information.
Patricia Duff is a freelance writer, editor and journalist.
(Pictured at top, “Ms. Loreen” explains the “duckaling” in Evans’ “Destination Grover’s Mule.” / Photo by Patricia Duff )