In the spirit of Humberto Eco (arch textual fetishist extraordinaire--see The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana),* Artist Thomas Allen combines a deft, artistic command of the x-acto knife with a sage deviant's love and understanding of all that is priceless in the realm of pulp fiction--a world where garish colors, tragic romance, science fiction, and the underworld merge into a concoction worthy of some odd tryste of Edgar Allen Poe, Lou Von Salome, and Sigmund Freud as lensed by Quentin Tarantino. The ironies of ironies here, of course, is that Miller has to destroy the objects of his love in order to create facsimiles that are more true, or, at the very least, more "alive" than the original. As the curators at his host Foley Gallery put it (twice): "Allen gently cuts around the shape of his figures, physically releasing them from their two dimensional surface. They are brought to life from their pages and covers with detailed lighting and a thin focus. Pulled and positioned, their intended drama comes to life." Holy Frankenstein, Batman! Ersatz figures "brought to life" from the paper covers of novels. This is a Borgesian wet dream without equal!*devotees of Eco will find a nice interview with his translator here.
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ReplyDeleteI must say that only a mere handful of people have been able describe my work accurately. However, you have hit the proverbial "nail" on the head and did so beautifully and eloquently. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThomas Allen (yes—THE Thomas Allen)