Ashlanders 'Shoe Bush' at Navickas' new art gallery
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| Marjorie Mather, 91, reacts after splattering paint on a picture of President George Bush using a slingshot aparatus to shoot a shoe with wet paint on the sole. |
Marjorie Mather leaned her 91-year-old frame back, clutched the shoe with all her strength and then let it fly, hitting "President Bush" smack in the cheek and splattering paint across his visage.
"Wow, I didn't know that was going to be so much fun!" she said, throwing up her hands in victory.
"Before, I said, 'I can't do it. I'm not happy with Bush, but I can't throw a shoe at him.' But then you get into the spirit of the thing and you say, 'Why not?'" Mather said Friday night, at MAda Shell Gallery's opening exhibit downtown.
The Shoe Bush installation invited locals to slingshot shoes at an eight foot square painting of the president's face. City Councilor Eric Navickas — who opened the gallery with his partner Amy Godard — used a paint roller to slather a thick layer of red on the soles of the sneakers, boots and Birkenstocks before people fired them at the image of Bush. Each shot cost $1 and the funds collected will go toward future gallery exhibits.
Video 4:50 min by Mandy Valencia
"Nothing feels better," Navickas said after making a solid shot. "I can't even believe how exhilarating this is."
Navickas and Godard, who are both mixed-media artists, decided to open the art space after the avant-guard Nuwandart Gallery closed last summer, Navickas said.
"We felt that too much of the art in Ashland had just became an embellishment for a wealthy class. We're trying to bring art into the dialogue for political and social interaction."
The gallery, which will undergo renovations this month and officially open in February, will be a space for emerging artwork and anti-art — work that focuses more on political and social justice than aesthetic beauty, said Navickas.Although laughter accompanied the sound of each shoe smacking the Bush portrait, the message behind the installation was serious, Godard added.
The exhibit was "statement of solidarity" for Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who hurled two shoes at the president last month, she said.
"He was tortured for it and he's still in prison. We're calling for his release," she said.
Kathleen Meagher, an Ashland poet, was one of several to stamp a footprint on the Bush painting — she hit him in the nose — and also expressed support for the gallery's vision, she said.
"I think art should be involved in social and political issues. I think it's a very effective way for an artist to speak to the world," she said.
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Mather may have been the oldest to "Shoe Bush" at the First Friday event, but 13-year-old Luke VanCampen was among the youngest.
He primed himself for the shot, leaning on his back foot and flexing his arm muscles — before he smacked the presidential portrait in the chin.
"I think it's a funny idea and I guess it's a good way to collect extra money for the gallery," he said. "Everybody wants to shoe Bush — well, almost everybody."
Staff writer Hannah Guzik can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 226 or hguzik@dailytidings.com.
