While the invention of the wheel mobilized us as a people, and railroads became the new method for getting around after centuries on horseback (followed by the automobile, which changed the American landscape), there’s still a push for pedestrianism—particularly in Las Vegas, where car culture has determined our mind-set.
Zak Ostrowski and Miguel Rodriguez at TastySpace.
So sure are we that getting around on foot can build a better sense of community, efforts to revitalize Downtown often reference the kind of pedestrian- (and cyclist-)friendly atmosphere many locals say we need. Inspired by all this discourse of alternative transportation Downtown, gallery owner Dana Satterwhite asked artists to “stretch their imagination in the world of transportation.”
The result is a group show inside Satterwhite’s TastySpace Gallery at Emergency Arts, where 12 artists (two presenting work as a duo) delved into the philosophical, political, opium-induced, pop-cultural and sci-fi-inspired means of getting around.
Jelaine Faunce’s tortoise outfoxes the perturbed hare by hopping on a 1950s tin toy car of the future with jet thrusters in an oil-on-panel painting (one of two Faunce works in the show).
Jelaine Faunce at TastySpace.
Spencer Davis’ nude woman with an athletic physique shoots skyward in a flight helmet, goggles and an oxygen mask in “Syrian Sunrise,” a resin-on-wood sculpture. With airplane wings for arms, finned calves and each leg stamped with an American flag and “U.S. Air Force,” she’s an Atomic-era, comic book-style figure placed amid an orange and muted-blue backdrop.
Doug Pedersen’s digital collage, “Atlantis,” provides the blueprints for a Space Shuttle Atlantis meetup with the mythological Greek island of the same name.
Mixed with more ideas of transportation in a retro future (presented in architectural renderings and sculpture), Eric Comstock’s jazz-era style painting of a man driving within a man and Ali Fathollahi’s mixed media “Opium”—a finely illustrated rendering of a different kind of journey—Alternative Transportation is an intriguing exhibit that merges artists and designers. Other participating artists are Joseph Watson, Gina Quaranto, Fernando Reyes, Roberto Rico, Nanda Sharifpour and the duo Dux Dirigible (Miguel Rodriguez and Zak Ostrowski).
Alternative Transportation, through September 30, TastySpace at Emergency Arts. Call 617-513-7336 for hours.
