{"id":2551,"date":"2011-04-21T08:08:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T16:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2551"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:12:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:12:30","slug":"im-with-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/21\/im-with-stupid-2551\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m with Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scott Siedman, Only Human, 2010. Oil on canvas.<\/p><\/div>\n


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This article originally appeared on April 21, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Timed to coincide with the 33rd annual Saint Stupid\u2019s Day Parade in San Francisco on April 1, \u201can extension of the medieval European tradition of the Feast of Fools, a public social satire on the powers that be,\u201d\u00a0 Rhythmix Cultural Works\u2019 K Gallery presents St. Stupid\u2019s Art Show, guest-curated by Ed Holmes, aka Bishop Joey of the First Church of the Last Laugh, the parade\u2019s founder.<\/div>\n
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Paul Mavrides, Untitled (Ernie Bushmiller\u2019s Nancy with a Single Eye), 2011. Ink on archival paper.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Including the likes of Harry S. (\u201cDr. Hal\u201d) Robins, Philo Drummond, Puzzling Evidence, and Paul Mavrides \u2014 all founders of the Church of the SubGenius \u2014 St. Stupid\u2019s Art Show boasts serious counterculture star power, and K Gallery continues to expand the credibility of Alameda\u2019s art scene.<\/div>\n

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The Church of the SubGenius is widely considered a \u201cparody religion,\u201d not \u201canti-God\u201d but condemning through satire the perceived commercialization of spirituality by organized religion. Defenders of Andres Serrano make similar arguments in support of his controversial photo \u201cPiss Christ,\u201d an image of a plastic crucifix ostensibly submerged in the artist\u2019s urine. This week \u201cPiss Christ\u201d was vandalized beyond repair at a museum in Avignon, France. Its destruction underscores the power of artistic images and makes the exhibit at K Gallery that much more timely.<\/div>\n

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Much of the work in Saint Stupid\u2019s Art Show mocks how evolved we humans think we are. In his remarkable oil painting \u201cOnly Human,\u201d Scott Siedman spoofs the beatific saint as an ape proffering the image of Saint Stupid, its eyes rolled towards heaven with an expression that clearly reads \u201coy vey!\u201d<\/div>\n
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Jim Erickson, Mayan Keyboard. Acrylic paint on carved plastic. Photo by Michael Singman-Aste.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n

Every civilization believes that they have reached the pinnacle of cultural evolution. The brilliant anachronism of Jim Erickson\u2019s \u201cMayan keyboard artwork invites the viewer to consider how stupid we are to think that our current civilization is so advanced.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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If you meet St. Stupid in the road, break the mirror.<\/div>\n
\u2013 From Sayings of Saint Stupid<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Whether humans evolved or were created, we are far from perfect. Jos Sances takes a swipe at Creationism in his three-foot high, sculpted ceramic tile diptych of Adam and Eve. Elements include the cover of \u201cThe Five Thousand Year Leap\u201d by conservative writer Cleon Skousen which argues, among other things, that \u201cwithout religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained,\u201d portraits of conservative pundit Glenn Beck and the late Anna Nicole Smith with her octogenarian husband, and a robed figure riding a dinosaur.<\/div>\n
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Jos Sances, \u201cAdam\u201d and \u201cEve\u201d diptych. Sculpted ceramic tiles. Photo by Michael Singman-Aste.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n


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Paul Mavrides, a Church of the SubGenius founder and well-known cartoonist, contributes his take on the eponymous Nancy from the comic strip by Ernie Bushmiller. \u201cZippy the Pinhead\u201d cartoonist Bill Griffith wrote<\/a> that in Bushmiller\u2019s reality, \u201cThe world as we know it has been reduced to its essentials.\u201d Mavrides takes this a step further, presenting Nancy with her face featureless except for one large eye.<\/div>\n

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Mavrides had also created another image of a three-fisted Nancy with five feet and multiple sets of triple eyes floating off to the horizon in which she laments, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing<\/strong> left to be modernized.\u201d Along with this cyclopean Nancy it pokes fun at how thoroughly modern we take ourselves to be, while showing the folly of change for the sake of change, of fixing what isn\u2019t broken.<\/div>\n

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Sometimes obscuring the message in ambiguity is the ideal method for transmission, a form of artistic steganography. Other times subtlety must be abandoned, the would-be recipients beaten over the head, to make sure they get it.<\/div>\n
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d\u2019Arci Bruno, Love American Style. Acrylic on canvas.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n

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There\u2019s nothing subtle about \u201cLove American Style,\u201d the acrylic painting by K Gallery Director d\u2019Arci Bruno; It\u2019s all shock and awe. Eyes pop cartoon-style from the sockets of a skull at the allure of oil (ah-OO-gah!), phallic missiles seek their targets, and the bone-littered battlefield is already staked out as a future site for Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. Factor in the skull\u2019s helmet with its crucifix flag insignia and Bruno has neatly captured the military-industrial complex, war for oil, and killing in the name of religion on one canvas.<\/div>\n

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Nothing is sacred, or at least off-limits in \u201cSaint Stupid\u2019s Art Show,\u201d so come with an open mind.<\/div>\n

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The exhibit also includes work by Blake Moore, Spy Emerson, Jim Hair, Art Hazelwood, William Binzen, Ann Ominous, John Wehrle, Marc Ribaud, Pons Maar, Al Honig, Freddy Hahne (aka AreWeReally?), Julian Kenji Carreiro, and Janet Koike.<\/div>\n

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St. Stupid\u2019s Art Show runs through April 30. Rhythmix Cultural Works is located at 2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501. The gallery is open 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and second Fridays, or call 865-5060 to schedule an appointment.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

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Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on April 21, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. Timed to coincide with the 33rd annual Saint Stupid\u2019s Day Parade in San Francisco on April 1, \u201can extension of the medieval European tradition of the Feast of Fools, a public social satire on the powers that be,\u201d\u00a0 Rhythmix Cultural Works\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[288,73,286,290,284,281,301,543,400,289,296,292,293,283,287,295,291,100,299,297,99,298,94,300,282,72,285],"class_list":["post-2551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-al-honig","tag-alameda","tag-ann-ominous","tag-arewereally","tag-art-hazelwood","tag-blake-moore","tag-church-of-the-subgenius","tag-darci-bruno","tag-ed-holmes","tag-freddy-hahne","tag-harry-s-robins","tag-janet-koike","tag-jim-erickson","tag-jim-hair","tag-john-wehrle","tag-jos-sances","tag-julian-kenji-carreiro","tag-marc-ribaud","tag-paul-mavrides","tag-philo-drummond","tag-pons-maar","tag-puzzling-evidence","tag-rhythmix-cultural-works","tag-scott-siedman","tag-spy-emerson","tag-the-island","tag-william-binzen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-F9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2551"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2581,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions\/2581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}