Audio By Carbonatix
In the 1960s, the two biggest contemporary art movements, pop art
and minimalism, were ideological opposites — well, except in
certain works from Andy Warhol’s “Elvis” series. Pop was
content-driven, riffing off everyday subject matter, while minimalism
was purely about form. So it’s interesting that today’s post-pop and
post-minimalism are often the same thing. This complex point is being
simply made by emerging twenty-something artist Amanda Gordon Dunn in
her impressive solo, American Muscle, at Pirate
Contemporary Art (3659 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058, www.pirateart.org).
The show title refers to ’60s and ’70s muscle cars, like big-block
Dodges, Chevys and Fords. Dunn’s works are hybrids of sculptures and
paintings in the form of garishly toned wall relief panels that are
very elegant despite the low-brow references to what some call “mullet
mobiles.” In truth, there are no literal references to the pride of
Detroit iron in the show, other than the colors and some stripes.
Dunn says some of the pieces are actually conceptual portraits of
friends, rather than literally being about cars. “For me, the muscle
cars became people. The cars are very sexy,” Dunn says. “I feel they
have a pulse to them, especially the candy-apple colors, and so the
pieces are a fusion of cars and portraits.” That’s why some of them
have car titles, like “’67 Dodge Charger” or “’73 Nomad,” while others
don’t, including “’77 Paco”, “’80 Wilcox” and “’77 Rainbow” (pictured),
the first one she created in the series.
The pieces are made of cloth that has been stretched over armatures,
some constructed from plastic, others from welded metal — Dunn’s
day job is as a welder for Miller Interpretive Design. Though some of
the pieces have accents done with automotive lacquers, all are, for the
most part, in the preexisting colors of the cloths. Dunn uses different
fabrics, including latex sheeting and spandex-backed four-way stretch
cloth. These are materials used for fetish clothing, and Dunn came
across them accidentally when she found closeout bolts at a discount
store after Halloween a few years ago. They’d been marketed as material
for costumes.
American Muscle runs through May 31.
