AT HEART, SPIKE JONES
Dimensions variable: The 3 main components can be mounted in different configurations than those seen here. In this configuration: 12’x7’x5″, oil and newspaper on wood, aluminum, digitally motorized turntable and discs, horn, sound (the irreverent musician Spike Jones’ Cocktails for Two), martini glass and pushbutton sensor, which activates the piece.

At Heart, Spike Jones exploits the ability of technology to alter perceptions through the orchestrated animation of sound, visual and kinetic effects. At the touch of a button, a set of quietly elegant structures turn comical, as a cocktail glass dances out of painting, Spike Jones’ song “Cocktails for Two” starts playing (speakers are mounted within the piece), and coasters are left for the taking. As the wall label reads, “Take a chance: Push the button. The romance begins: Music, cocktails, a conversation starter. Want more? Take ONE of the little ‘collages’ into the world. Place it under a drink. (Instant coaster.) Enjoy the aphrodisiac of being a rouge collector. The catch: Now that you’ve snatched the work away from those with the wherewithal to enter a gallery, it is NOT yours to keep. Liberate Art. Leave the work behind, give it to someone else, pass it on.”

Exhibition Venues
Oboro, Dream Mechanics, Montreal, Canada (Curator: Tamar Tembeck), 2016.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Hampden Gallery, Amherst, MA (Curator: Anne LaPrade), 2011.
Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, What If?, 2003.

Press
Le Devoir, “Peintures cinétiques et chatouilleuses,” Nov. 19, 2016, by Jérôme Delgado.
Fine Arts Center 2010-2011, UMass Amherst, “Hampden Gallery, Mary Sherman,” p. 19, 2011.
Art New England, (Jan./Feb), “Regional Reviews,” Luke Jaeger, 2004.
The Boston Globe, (Nov. 14), “Exhibition Encourages Artists to Alter one another’s Work“, Cate McQuaid, 2003.
The Boston Phoenix, (Oct. 31), “Art on its Own,” Randi Hopkins, 2003.