For those of you familiar with Severn Eaton’s work, leave behind your expectations. Eaton makes his debut at PUSH Skateshop and Gallery with a new exhibition titled See What Inspired Me. (Yes, it gets its name from the obnoxious series of Tiger Woods billboards.) The Asheville painter is known for capturing the intensity of socio-cultural foreign affairs with a touch of humor. His new work maintains a tongue-in-cheek attitude, but this time he’s playing with the disconnect between real and synthetic experiences.
The gallery’s walls are covered, but you won’t find paintings. Instead, hundreds of large-scale advertisements and banners paper the floor and walls, creating an enclosed chamber. Over and under the words are images of food, smiling people and a 5-foot-wide baby’s head emblazoned with a copyright symbol.
Two clear packing-tape casts of Eaton and his wife face each other from across a waist high red box positioned in the middle of the gallery. A toggle switch on the box activates a vacuum motor attached to the figures. When flipped one was, Mr. Eaton begins to inflate while Mrs. Eaton deflates. Likewise for the opposite.
Show at PUSH Skateshop and Gallery, 25 Patton Ave. 225-5509.
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