The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 11, 1992 Page: 11 of 16
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 1992 11
Flesh on walls
New gallery chooses all~American tkeme for first show: barbecue
Suburban appliance: Scott Prescott's version of the barbecue pit.
Lollapalooza
FROM PACE 9
were also some other ethnic food
stands selling gyros, fajitas, Italian
food, and Mediterranean food. Most
people I saw, though, were carrying
around the good 'ol hamburger.
Nevertheless, after eating my one
and only meal that day, I tried to fmd
the political booths. After wandering
through rows and rows of stands
selling the same kind of jewelry, hats,
Guatemalan goods, and beads for 15
minutes in the hot sun, I found them.
Now, I imagined maybe at least 20
different organizations. I hoped to see
everyone from the ACLU to some of
those weird, radical, conspiracy type
feathers, sawdust, 'plastic hay' and
processed sewage to promote rapid
weight gain?" So, that's why those CK
burgers taste like they do.
After this I went by the Rainforest
Action Network, the Hemp Legaliza-
tion group, Greenpeace, and the
Libertarian booth. At the latter I
discovered after taking a poll that, to
my surprise, I was a Libertarian. So I
signed up for their mailing list
That was basically it, except for the
Safe Sex Wheel of Fortune where after
donating $11 won a condom. The
commercial tents clearly outnumbered
the political ones by about 4 to 1, and
the proportion of people at the
commercial stands compared to the
After that was the socialist/communist
group proclaiming, "Phony
Communism is Dead...Long Live Real
Communism!" I liked this booth.
groups. What I saw, though, was
pretty depressing.
The first place I stopped at was the
Refuse & Resist stand, who "JUST
SAY NO to the New World Order!"
Basically a very liberal, anti-Bush,
anti-Conservative ideals group. It was
a bit interesting, but nothing really
new to my ears.
The next place up was the Rock
The Vote booth. There I registered to
vote and bought an anti-censorship
bumper sticker ($1). I wondered,
though, how many of the people who
registered today would actually go out
and vote November 4.
After that was the socialist/
communist group proclaiming, "Phony
Communism is Dead...Long Live Real
Communism!" I liked this booth. They
had a lot of different pamphlets and
information, and had the token Mao
Tse-tung portrait behind them.
Leaving Mao, i went to the PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals) stand. Did you know that
"Cattle feed routinely includes
shredded newspaper, cement dust,
people at the political ones was much
higher.
What happened? Where was the
ACLU? Where were the Democratic
Party, Act Up, the Young Republi-
cans, Amnesty International, the
promised NRA, and the local art we
were supposed to see? Nowhere to be
found.
So, yeah, the music was good, and
I did happen to see a few interesting
things (like a girl with dolphins
tatooed around her navel), but the
whole bonding, spiritual, political,
might I say Woodstock? thing never
happened. Sure, I saw every noncon-
formist in Harris County and beyond,
but I also saw two prepubescent girls
sporting tie-dye shirts and Converse
with their middle-class moms. 1 don't
want to say this, but it really did sell
out.
After all, there it was for every-
body to see on the spotlight cage:
Lollapalooza 1992—sponsored by
Coca-Cola.
A good concert it was; a
lollapaloozian experience it was not
swf searching for reliable, fun assistant
arts and entertainment editor, likes long
nights, movies, stimulating gallery
openings, you? call 527-4801.
BY ESTELA ZARATE
The Barbecue Show, the inaugural
exhibit at a new local gallery, was
literally finger-licking good, or at the
very least, interesting. Adjacent to the
recently-opened coffeehouse Brasil,
Devil's Dog Gallery is an unconven-
tional gallery intended to be a private
and cozy exhibiting space. At Devil's
Dog, the front door will remain locked
and the only entrance will be through
the cafe, ushering the visitor through a
sort of exclusive, intellectual space
into an unconventional gallery.
According to one of the owners,
Daniel Fergus, barbecue was chosen as
the theme of the show because it is one
subject that everyone is familiar with,
and "no one can argue about it." Some
artists who contributed works to the
show treated the subject lightly, and
others were even visceral about
barbecue.
At the opening, Fergus blackened
chicken on two pits which doubled as
sculptures. Scott Prescott's "Hot dogs
on wheels or get your buns out of the
road ya bunch a' weenies" had wild
fire spewing out of its metal wrangle
and Noah Edmondson's "Chicken B-
B-Q Pit" was the most functional and
humorous art contribution—a human
head protruded from one end and two
helpless feet stuck out the other.
It was particularly difficult to savor
the chicken that was served while
contemplating a series of black and
white photographs by "Ardith," "Flesh
on Flesh."
Ardith's documentation of various
raw meats on nude models was
thought provoking, yet the artist
seemed unconcerned with the
technical quality of the photographs.
Ardith seldom juxtaposed the raw
meat with the natural contour of the
body, and the overall composition of
the photographs lacked originality.
On the other hand, well-known
artist Beth Secor's contribution, a
gouache on paper titled "The Tree of
Life," treated barbecue in a more
familiar manner. According to Secor,
this particular piece is a commentary
on the wholesome, all-American
family that cooks barbecue every
weekend. The piece is colorful,
detailed and contains a fairy-tale
magical quality. Yet, one cannot help
but to notice, at the bottom of the
piece, a frantic woman running or
falling down a path chasing after a
basket as if her life depended on it. It
is a deceptively light-hearted piece that
draws the attention of the viewer
toward it.
Ben Livingston's burning meat
pieces drew the most attention. A
metal fork received voltage from a
neon cross and it made contact with a
wire in a piece of chicken that was on
a plate. The fork and the wire created
electric fire and the piece of chicken
smoldered slowly to the bone. This
piece literally sparked the show with
its technical ingenuity.
Devil's Dog's selection of art
pieces is varied enough to attract many
different viewers and even customers.
However, the bohemian ambience of
the gallery seems to be less profit,
oriented and more a place for artists to
fearlessly exhibit their work.
The Barbecue Show
Devil's Doc Gallery, 528-1993
Through Oct. 1
FREE SNEAK PREVIEW
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FREE MOVIE POSTERS
Wednesday, Sept. 16
7:30 PM
Rice Media Center
Passes Available At
Student Activities Office
2nd Floor Ley Student Center
Presented By
Rice University Program Council
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Kim, Leezie & Carson, Chad. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 11, 1992, newspaper, September 11, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245817/m1/11/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.