As part of the contemporary art movement, Paul McCarthy plays a leading role in non-hierarchical, originalist, and transformative art. His newest exhibit at the Henry Art Gallery, “White Snow, Wood Sculptures,” abstracts the modern representations of folk and fairy tales through his contemporary representations of the dark and disturbing features taken from original folklore.
McCarthy’s focus on the abstraction of modernist art is mimicked by his interest in disrupting pop culture’s representations of fairy tales. Physical twists and turns in his woodwork are modeled after the twists and turns in the stories themselves. Up close, these pieces appear less like wood than disjointed rock formations or clay that’s been squeezed between fingers, again adding to the abstraction McCarthy is creating.
Although originally cautious about working with the medium of wood, due to its traditionally ritualistic and devotional connotations, McCarthy’s choice of material is unusual and aids in his contemporary abstraction with “White Snow.” The exhibit would not be the same had the material of choice been bronze or another sculpting material.
The fact that black walnut is used, an extremely tough and hard wood, emphasizes the message McCarthy intends to project with his work. The stories he borrows characters from are distorted and gloomy, and are about much more than meets the eye in a light-hearted Disney representation of Snow White. When taking a closer look, the complexities of the wood are deeply ingrained in every piece in the exhibit, aiding in the commentary about our societal tendency to look at idolized and appropriated texts.
These up-to 9-ton wooden sculptures are produced in very interesting ways. After McCarthy designs his vision with computer mapping software, the carving process was done by large scale carving machines. Blocks of black walnut wood were pieced and joined together, carved according to McCarthy’s idea, and then finally touched up after the carving process was finished.
Jagged edges, in contrast with the smoothness created by McCarthy, occur when the machines do not “understand” where a piece begins or ends. He celebrates this and recognizes that the machine is able to add something to his piece. These jagged edges in contrast with the smooth exterior of the majority of the pieces add to the dystopic and dark representations of “White Snow.” Rather than pushing back against the cyborg culture we’re a part of, McCarthy celebrates it by collaborating between the complicated mind of man — his own artistic ideas — and the seemingly flawless, but clearly imperfect machine that helps him produce his sublime work.
Up close, these pieces are just as beautiful as they are from far away, but there is a sharp contrast between the feelings extracted from these pieces when viewing them intimately versus distantly. The sheer beauty of the woodwork is incessantly apparent up close. The black walnut wood, dark and light, are pieced together in methodically different ways on each piece.
In “WS, White Snow and Prince on Horseback. Marger, Transformation, Mutation,” McCarthy pieces together the walnut wood in a grid-like, chessboard fashion. In others, such as “WS, Bookends,” the wood appears to blend into itself as if it were one piece. The most striking piece, especially when staring at it from a distance, is “WS White Snow Flower Girl #2,” which uses lighter walnut wood to show two White Snows next to one another, almost as if they are siamese twins, or one person with two identities.
Perhaps one of the more controversial pieces is “WS White Snow, Snow White, Bambi, Thumper,” which shows a sexualized White Snow character breaking away from the goody-girl Snow White. Next to her sits the Disney character, Thumper, with a very large human-like phallus, perverting Disney’s representation of these innocent characters.
Incredible amounts of work go into each piece of the collection: Much of the wood is kiln dried, carefully assembled by hand, and took about seven weeks of machines running 24/7 to physically carve.
The grandiose nature of the largest pieces in the collection may initially seem to pull from the Baroque art movement. Although, the different compositions and the controversial subject matter of each piece challenge the conservative nature of such a movement.
Nearly frightening representations in “White Snow” perpetuate either a really new or really old way of looking at folklore. Modeled after what the folk traditions initially portrayed, the exhibit touches on ideas that have not been considered in years due to the cartoonized representation of Snow White. McCarthy’s “White Snow” goes so far as to reverse the name of Snow White and return to topics originally written in her story: Themes related to death versus life, broken and used-up bodies, and violence are especially prominent throughout the exhibit.
The verdict: Take a bite of McCarthy’s poisoned apple; join “White Snow” in this new exhibit at the Henry.
Reach Special Sections Editor Rebecca Gross at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @becsgross
