A weed by any other name
The wild art of Rodney’s Roadside Attraction
Just a couple of blocks north of Caffe Beano on Ninth Street S.W., the place that Rodney Brent calls home is marked by a colourful relief collage of golden cyber-breasts, personified guitar bodies and phone cords that weave together green fried eggs with renegade Barbie Dolls. Brent is the local artist and Renaissance man who also goes by the pseudonym Bartok Guitarsplat. He explains that the name Bartok comes from his personal mantra: "Be Art – OK?" Brent not only is art, he lives in, on and out of art.
The self-proclaimed "functional found object folk artist" has spent one-and-a-half years transforming a Calgary property into a living art monument. Motivated by an encouraging landlord and the knowledge that the house would eventually be torn down, Brent approached the building as if it was a blank canvas.
"Folk art means I don’t have to abide by any rules," says Brent. This democratic art form, which he call "stuff that anyone can do," has spurred Brent to recycle and reinvent every piece of vinyl and discarded circuit board that he's ever found by affixing it to the side of his house. Brent cites the veneering of Mexican folk art as one of his inspirations and, indeed, almost every visible surface – inside and out – of what he calls Rodney's Roadside Attraction is covered by some unlikely material.
"A lot of this was done out of necessity," explains Brent. " When we first moved in here, we cleared out the carpet, which hadn't been cleaned of cat and dog for 60 years."
What replaced it was a layer of packing foam followed by geometric shapes cut out of waterproof vinyl, different kinds of awning, and backpack material held in place by $20 worth of staples. While not the most practical solution, Brent's floor completed the vibrant installation which extends from his walls, made of clear Plexiglas and red reflector plastic, to his doorframes adorned with telephone receivers.
Often working in multiples, most of Rodney's Roadside Attraction evolved from multifarious found and donated objects.
"Any time I find more than one of something... (I) can get into an idea," says Brent. In the Ninth Street collage, this has translated into bicycles riding up the side of his house towards a sea of plastic fried eggs and vinyl records. Calculators become the arms of crude robots and laundry dryer parts speak to guitar necks and Batman figurines.
Sadly, Rodney's Roadside Attraction is soon to become the stuff of urban legend, as it faces demolition in early May. Brent smiles at this finale, and says, "The whole house is a joke. I sit in the window... and watch people walk by as I play my guitar. I've seen people stop and laugh out loud – that's the point."
In an age of peach-coloured suburbs and gated communities of mass-produced houses, Brent's montage collage is a welcome change. He calls his visual expression "wild art," referring to his favourite flower, the purple thistle, as inspiration for his weed in the garden of commercial gallery art.
"My philosophy, after years and years of trying to figure this out, is: after all is said and done, I don't know much about art. I just know what I like…. For me, I did a little thing on the side of the house and I said, 'Hey, I'm happy with that.'"
Rodney's Roadside Attraction is located at 1415 - 9 St. S.W. It is scheduled for demolition on May 2. |
