Compare to Peter Schuyff's bats:
http://www.schuyff.com/bats-03.php
- chrisashley (guest) 6-08-2009 9:14 pm

Peter Schuyff - Dutch Baseball

Very nice, I'll have to show this to Brian. (they appear to be obsessively hand carved too)

VVORK should do a clusterfuck of carved baseball bats.


- L.M. 6-08-2009 10:06 pm

Brian Jungen


- sally mckay 6-08-2009 11:11 pm

Had no idea that those existed.
- L.M. 6-08-2009 11:34 pm

Clone attack!
Does anyone (critics, curators) ever say these objects look like large sex toys? As opposed to "riot sticks"?
Not that I think that, it's just when you see big phallic objects with knobs, ridges, etc you imagine that someone might describe them that way. Once.

- tom moody 6-09-2009 3:56 am

Ha! Quite honestly, the phallic reference never occurred to me.

(at the opening we used them as ...baseball bats)
- L.M. 6-09-2009 5:18 am

Damn, now we all have syphilis.

- L.M. 6-09-2009 5:21 am

Clone shmone. We haven't had this argument discussion for awhile, and I don't particularly want to have it again now, but I think they're all really great.
- sally mckay 6-09-2009 2:20 pm

"this argument "

its a "discussion"
- bill 6-09-2009 2:23 pm

yes yes! discussion. This is well-trodden territory, no heat on my side.
- sally mckay 6-09-2009 3:46 pm

For those who might have missed the previous discussion, a clone attack is typically where you have a whole lot of variations calling attention to a single, not very strong idea. As for "heat" I'm not trying to hurt Brian's feelings but this is a simple visual pun (filigrees on a blunt object) with a simple message (violence is bad). If you called them Brutal Carved Dildos they'd be more problematic. Or if they were treated as folk or "tramp art" without any heavy titling they might also work.
- tom moody 6-09-2009 6:04 pm

"violence is bad"
hm. Not sure I agree that's the message, nor that the message is simple. Brian Hobbes is a really good woodworker and has done sumptuous carvings before in other forms. These sticks are set up specifically to engage in a material conversation with Monica Tapp's painting which is also adamantly aesthetic.

Maybe violence is good? Or beautiful? Maybe beautiful is as dangerous as ugly? If you're willing to go there with the work, then all the carnal potency of dildos is implied, only with more interesting ambiguous subtlety than a sex farce gag.
- sally mckay 6-10-2009 1:48 am

The title "Decorative Riot Sticks" is oxymoronic. Most viewers of the exhibit will see the dichotomy as "riot sticks bad" and "sumptuous decoration good." I suppose someone who believes in social order and police power could resolve the contradiction into a "violence is beautiful" message. I think it's a stretch.
- tom moody 6-10-2009 2:36 am

what we have here are carved baseball bats, not police batons. baseball is a domesticated (inarguably to the level of elegance) form of tribal (war club) battle. the phallus fetish object is a historically ubiquitous theme. the reinterpretation here is rather contextually unique and gorgeously rendered in 20-21c woodworking technique. ultra modern (molded plastic) dildoe design (french tickler etc etc) has come a long way too of late and surely informs as well.

- bill 6-10-2009 1:54 pm

Tom put a nice collage on his blog: morphogenetic hobo poles
- sally mckay 6-10-2009 10:56 pm

Returning after several weeks to this discussion and Sally's defense of Brian Hobbs' carved bats.

"Hobbs is a really good woodworker and has done sumptuous carvings before in other forms."

But we aren't talking about those other forms, we're talking about these.

"These sticks are set up specifically to engage in a material conversation with Monica Tapp's painting which is also adamantly aesthetic."

That's not the artist's doing, though, is it? In other words he didn't carve all these bats to contrast with one painting, did he?

"Maybe violence is good? Or beautiful?"

This is just sophistry. I hope it is. I seriously doubt the artist meant for police to crack more heads for the sheer beauty of it.

My take: If Hobbs wanted to make beautiful carving qua carving he wouldn't have used an image with other associations (sports, violence, whatever) and left it so recognizable. The title "Decorative Riot Sticks" removes any doubt about his intent, which is trite and obvious. It seems that because you like the artist's work you only see the carving, and expect others to be similarly selective.

- tom moody 7-24-2009 2:50 pm

"In other words he didn't carve all these bats to contrast with one painting, did he?"

Yes Tom, he did. The P.V. Expo show was about taking work from the Gallery collection and creating something for it.
- L.M. 7-24-2009 3:09 pm

I'm confused--if the work was already in the collection how could he make it "to order," so to speak?
- tom moody 7-24-2009 3:34 pm

The Monica Tap painting is in the collection, he chose the painting and then carved the bats.
- L.M. 7-24-2009 4:16 pm

OK, thanks. I'm not sure how pairing the work with an abstract painting makes the work less political but I'm glad we cleared up this point.
- tom moody 7-24-2009 9:19 pm

LUV THE HOBB
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- L.M. 12-07-2009 3:25 pm