Steve Carr
A hobo’s paradise: Popcorn Mountain, Sausages on Sticks and a Cigarette Tree
Approaching Steve Carr’s works can elicit trepidation similar to that which you experience when approached by a stray dog; it looks inviting, friendly and innocent, but boy can it pack an unsettling and surprising growl. Steve Carr has played with the tensions between the sweet and the malevolent, particularly in relation to objects or images that take us back to our childhoods, through sculpture, film and photography.
Popcorn Mountain (2007) is, as its title suggests, a mountainous pile of popcorn stacked into a cone in the gallery (equalling the artist’s own weight). But there are more obscure references at play; popcorn has a rich history in folklore and urban legends. Writing about an earlier version of the work, Lucy Hammonds made reference to Native American tribal folklore, in particular a story where spirits live happily inside each popcorn kernel.[1] When their homes were heated, the spirits grew angry and eventually burst out as a puff of hot air. Whether we find the mound of popcorn tempting or repulsive, Carr’s sculpture has an undeniable humour to it. We can’t help but smile at the ludicrous ‘super-duper-size’ of the pile on the floor, while retaining a healthy unease at what might be lurking underneath.
You get the sense that the party’s over when you look at Carr’s Sausages on Sticks (2007) each carved from single pieces of cherry wood. This work recalls his earlier food works Cherries (2005) and Marshmallows on Sticks (2005) and triggers memories of summer barbecues and being in the great outdoors. We imagine an old codger sitting on a stool whittling away to make these folksy objects; the knife marks on the wood a reminder of the hours of careful labour that went into each one.
Carr’s film work Cigarette Tree (2007) documents an action of a much shorter duration, but with the same sense of consideration and attention to detail. Over approximately four minutes an elaborate and contemplative performance unfolds from a cigarette packet (Peter Stuyvesant Lights—the brand smoked by Carr’s mother, as it was by mums and aunties across New Zealand). The magic of this trick is in its resourcefulness and simple beauty, the smoke filling the plastic cavity and dropping to its base, eventually transforming the shape of the structure from a square/rectangle into a semicircle. The work’s title is taken from the lyrics of the blue grass song ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’—a song about a hobo’s paradise:
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
Sarah Farrar
Notes:
[1] Lucy Hammonds, ‘Snowflakes and Mushrooms’, New Zealand Art Monthly website: http://www.nzartmonthly.co.nz/lucyhammonds_001.html
Steve Carr artist bio:
Born Gore, 1976
Lives and works in Auckland
Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of Art, Otago Polytechnic; Master of Fine Arts (First class honours), Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Selected solo exhibitions include: 'Goes Nowhere Like a Rainbow', Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (2007); 'Goes Nowhere Like a Rainbow', Te Tuhi, Pakuranga (2006); 'Big Cheese', Artspace, Auckland (2006); 'Sometimes it Snows in April', Sherman Galleries, Sydney (2006).
Selected group exhibitions include: 'Recovered Memory: The Fourth Goodman-Suter Contemporary Art Project', The Suter, Nelson (2006); 'Play: Portraiture and Performance in Video Art from Australia and New Zealand', Adam Art Gallery, Wellington and Perth Insitute of Arts, Perth (2005-06); 'Remember New Zealand', Artspace, Auckland (2005); 'Telecom Prospect 2004: New Art New Zealand', City Gallery Wellington, Wellington (2004).
Image credits:
Steve Carr
Sausages on Sticks 2007
hand carved cherry wood
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Cigarette Tree 2007
35mm film, transferred to DVD
duration: 3 mins 51 secs
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Popcorn Mountain 2007
popcorn, oil, salt
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Detail of Sausages on Sticks 2007
hand carved cherry wood
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland