Artist Lecture: Dada Local Artist Talks

Some Reno Dada artists had displayed their works in a gallery of UNR and hold an evening talk in October 17^th. Unfortunately, I didn't go to the talk on time, so I didn't hear all the artists talk about their works. The ones I felt very interested in were St. Twinkie of the Sacred Heart by Nancy Peppin and The Meeting (three works) by Erik Burke.

The Twinkie project was divided into two parts, a structure sketching of Twinkie and a little piece of Twinkie placed in a 3/2-inch long metal chamber. Peppin started the Twinkie series in 1975. She said she chose it to be a symbol of culture image in the food in the U.S. Because she has worked with this little snack for over thirty years, she had an idea that "Twinkie lasts forever." Therefore, she did many works with Twinkie into them as the role of eternity. The one in a tiny chamber also expressed the same idea. Peppin's main goal was to put things out of context all time. That is what she keeps trying to focus on in her Twinkie projects and other pieces.

Erik Burke explained the Meeting was actually a triptych, consisting of a painting, a photograph, and a door taken from a vehicle. Burke believed art was about relationship, so he emphasized the relationships in this project. They were: two trucks in the middle poster, which Burke thought they had interesting connection because he always saw one was out while one was stayed in the parking space. Burke sprayed the sentence "It's Just Not The/Same Without You" on them. Having the experience of being misunderstood by police made him think about how working artist, graffiti, and police were related to each other. The painting of a police car without its door and the real car door were how he expressed this relationship. 

               The reason why I pick these two pieces to write about is because the choice of the mixed media Peppin and Burke applied to their pieces were incredibly creative. Peppin used the real Twinkie to express the concept of eternity perfectly, and the triptych Burke made emphasized the relationship. Without any of them, the Meeting would just not be that effective.