Tinderella Did It All For The Cookie.
Brayden Bugazzi Review @ The Mid City Arts Center
Mr. Bugazzi displayed a collection of a dozen or so artworks which were by no means gentle and demur. Each possessed a dynamic force which mostly could not be contained within the composition. They commonly reached and projected outwards, provocatively imposing upon the viewers. While there was a sample of Hollywood kitsch dressed up in a novel manner – icons of Hollywood as art subject matter must be more than simple decoration; if we have Marilyn Monroe then she should be a symbol, or again, iconic, of a greater context within the artistic vision – there was also promising mixed media which was a compromise of cool provocateur with artistic ambition.
The more decorative works were ingenious in their colorful illumination. And it must be said, that while it is common for galleries to suffer from poor exhibition lighting (even this one had an unfortunately dim hallway which erased any possibility of a subject to be absorbed by the two artworks within the hall), The Mid City Arts Center was intelligently used to unleash the fullest potential of the aesthetic choices by Mr. Bugazzi. This is artwork that legitimately does not need artificial illumination to be appreciated. As such, for decorative purposes it enters into new boundaries for occupying human space. And there is a sense of nocturnal glamorousness; a nighttime confidence that is not jarring to the eyes. This is hard to conceive of when it is plainly trivial to make this experimenting fail and so it must be commended.
The zenith of this level of creativity, however, comes with Tinderella did it all for the Cookie. It is an evolutionary movement forward from the Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein. And the title informs such an explosive action-film narrative, yet absurd whimsy; all quite laudable. To condense a plausible narrative so masterfully is worth contemplation.
With the piece, we have a sensation of finality, a spectacle of ending. Yet what was the beginning? We can only presume a heist of sorts, in true Hollywood form, and thus a severance of the heroine (we must presume) from her prey. Yet this clearly has a sexual connotation with the heroine being Tinderella; are we to interpret this work as orgasmic, and that the ends justified the means for her? To craft such an interpretation without the effort of lowering the subject matter into a visual form makes this a terrific example of very high concept art, yet irreverent and popish. No easy feat!
In sum, this is work that is on the whole aesthetically advancing and would fit within a collection by youngish souls who never want to quit dreaming. Of those who want to be perennially reminded to never stop, to remain forever young.