Continues Its Message With Current Show

At Barnum Museum

By Shannon Hicks

BRIDGEPORT — I love challenges where a group of people are given the same starting point, unlimited materials, a theme, and told: Create what you want.

Last year The Barnum Museum offered an exhibition of one such project when it presented “Oil Drum Art — a juried aesthetic & environmental exhibition” from mid July until the end of August 2007. The show was my first introduction to oil drum art, and it made a lasting impression.

Currently the museum is presenting another Oil Drum Art (ODA) exhibition. “9/11 Commemorative Oil Drum Art” features a number of pieces created by artists in memory of the events of September 11, 2001, as well as ODA paying homage to the environment, the energy crisis, global warming, our carbon footprint, and the Middle East war.

The current exhibit will run through September 27 and while there was not an opening reception for the show when it quietly debuted last week, there will be a special event on September 11 (see details at the end of this story).

Jack Lardis sees the oil drum as a metaphor providing artists worldwide an opportunity to create aesthetic or environmental statements about society. Mr Lardis is the founder and president of Oil Drum Art, Inc, a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 2003 when he launched the concept of turning used (read: recycled) 55-gallon oil drums into works of art. Mr Lardis sent out an invitation for artists to apply for New Haven’s Open Studios event that year; 75 artists responded to his call, and 15 were selected to create art for the citywide event.

In a similar vein to the CowParade exhibits that have been presented in cities around the world (and even closer to home, very much like The Rooster Revue presented by Newtown Parent Connection in 2006 and last year’s collection of stars decorated by 14 Newtown artists for an auction to benefit C.H. Booth Library in September 2007), artists participating in oil drum art shows have all been presented with the same starting point — in this case, a 55-gallon oil drum.

In the past five years, ODA has had 20 exhibitions with artworks created by artists of all disciplines.

The headline piece in “9/11 Commemorative Oil Drum Art” is from Dennis Bialek of Torrington, called “Visions of Yesterday and Today — 9/11 Remembered.” It features a painting of the Twin Towers from that fateful September day on a drum that sits atop a child’s red wagon.

The work incorporates one and a half barrels. The lower, full, barrel has the depiction of the Twin Towers before the planes hit, an American flag painted in place of what would be the sky behind the towers. The blue field of the flag features a painting of the globe in its center, with stars radiating from the globe.

The upper barrel, which has been cut in half, has been painted on its inside to look like a mottled blue sky. While the lower barrel is resting on its side, the upper barrel is standing up, and is cradling a mock bomb.

Mr Bialek was born during World War II, so he has lived through the Korean, Vietnam and Cold wars. The wagon that is part of “9/11 Remembered,” he says in his artist’s statement, is meant to represent the innocence of childhood. The image on the front of the barrel represents America’s battle with the world for its existence. The bomb represents the fears the artist felt while living through the aforementioned wars.

“The traditional bomb as shown on the [artwork] should no longer be feared,” he wrote. “It has been replaced by terrorists who can turn just about any item into a bomb today.” Several such items — shoe, truck, letter, and car among them — are listed on the reverse of the barrels.

One of the new works in this year’s show (or at least a work that was not in last year’s presentation of ODA at The Barnum) is “Forget Me Not!” by ODA creator Jack Lardis. A barrel painted on the exterior to look like an American flag hides (cradles?) a wire form in the loose shape of a human, with the shreds of a camouflage uniform over the human form.

The exterior of the barrel is two-fold. One side of the exterior has been cut to appear like a human ribcage, with a few holes that no doubt are meant to look like bullet holes. The other side of the exterior is filled with the American flag, but it is inverted… which serves as a cry of distress when a flag hangs that way from a flagpole, the side of a building, or from a ship. More bullet holes have punctured this side of the barrel, which is also smudged and scarred. If the barrel is meant to look like a flag from this side at least, it’s certainly a battle-scarred flag.

The work, he offers in part in a statement accompanying the piece, is in part a response to the desensitization we have developed over the loss of life and maiming of thousands of American soldiers.

“The oversaturation of war news … has made Americans almost indifferent to what the death of a soldier means,” he wrote.

Mr Lardis is also represented this year by “War,” which was made using three barrels (or perhaps two), with each of the three letters in the word carved out. Each letter has then had dozens of old-fashioned nails hammered through it.

Other ODA in the exhibit are from Lianne Audette of East Haven, whose “Nature Versus Man” recalls the time, 30 years ago, when the artist and lifelong sailor was sailing across the Gulf Stream toward the Eastern Seaboard and the water went from crystal turquoise to oily slate gray, and only got worse the closer she got to New York; Pam Bogert of Naugatuck, who turned the bottom of a barrel into the sun, carved the sides of the barrel into sunbeams, and splashes everything with a rainbow of colors to create “Solar Energy”; and Lorna Cyr of Bristol, whose “Touch Mother Earth” pays homage to the Native Americans who first lived on — and honored — the land.

Don Fazekas of Naugatuck is represented by “Drummin,’” Jesse Good of New London is represented with “Global Meltdown,” and “Big Money,” a former Best in Show ODA for the Chester artist, is an oil barrel on its side, painted to look like a roll of $20 bills.

Also on view is work from Tao LaBossiere of Hartford, whose “Dependency” used three steel barrels, plus fiberglass resin and paint, to create a much larger-than-life stubbed-out cigarette; Fred Osorio’s “Time is Running Out,” which won the Environmental Prize in the 2007 Barnum presentation; and “Iron Face” by Peter Smith of Hamden.

The collection also include a simple raw black drum called “It All Starts Here.”

“It’s important for the public to realize that it’s much more than sculpture and painting. There are no restrictions. This is an aesthetic and environmental art exhibit. Most of the pieces deal with the environment and geopolitical issues,” Jack Lardis told The Bee a few hours before last year’s presentation at The Barnum Museum opened. “ODA is eventually going to become a forum to provide an open dialogue in the United States.”

Within each show dialogue is likewise encouraged. Each artwork includes an artist’s statement, which Mr Lardis said is part of the show’s educational process.

“That’s a very important aspect of the show: it opens a dialogue between the viewer and the artist, even without the artist being there to answer questions,” he said. “The statements explain, in part, the artist’s thought process and meaning.

“So often you’ll see a parent or an adult with a child, and the child will say ‘What does that mean?’ Now everyone will understand so much of this show,” Mr Lardis said.

While the current presentation is much smaller than last year’s — 13 works now compared to 38 last summer — it is still a presentation that makes visitors think about oil, the environment, the economy, and this time, 9/11.

The Barnum Museum, at 820 Main Street in Bridgeport, is open Tuesdays through Sundays. Call 203-331-1104 or visit BarnumMuseum.org for additional information.

On Thursday, September 11, from noon to 1:30 pm, the museum will host a special reception and ceremony commemorating the events of September 11, 2001. The public is invited to attend this presentation for free.

For additional ODA information — including details about Mr Lardis’s long-term, five-step plan for Oil Drum Art — visit OilDrumArt.org.