Carol Jackson

"The Adventure Store"

In the present work, cannibalism is used as a metaphor for our fear of being left behind by the spectacle of culture. Whereas Jeffrey Dahmer offset his fear of being abandoned by his drugged guests by eating them, the more oedipalized amongst us choose the more civilized method of ideological cannibalism.

It is this spirit that Ten In One Gallery has been temporarily devoured by The Adventure Store which passers-by read as still another sign of encroaching gentrification. This "store" takes all the adventure of the urban frontier, commodifies it, packages it, and offers it back at a price. It follows the current trend amongst retailers who promote their products as survival kits for the urban environment.

Regionally, the work references the local outsider art phenomenon, which unfortunately continues to cloud the perception of art produced in the midwest. For some folks, the consumption of other's marginallization due to the lack of proper Oedipalization is akin to summiting Everest.

As in all the enterprises I put forth as an artist, Oedipussy Tess serves as the initiating force, the founder. She is king and queen of circular narratives, master of closed systems gone awry, shaman of heretofore unmarketable goods and services, and as such has blessed this Store and all who enter. She is the capital filter through which all of culture's most vile heterogeneous objects and situations pass to become palatable. -CJ

images

Below:
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Mixed media installation at Ten In One Gallery.
"The Adventure Store" 1997 "Unsolved Mysteries"

Below:
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Detail of "Unsolved Mysteries"
"The Adventure Store" 1997 "Unsolved Mysteries"
"The Adventure Store" 1997 "Parlor Trout"

Below:
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Detail of "Parlor Trout"
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Mixed media installation.
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Detail of "Weight Belts"

Below:
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Installation of "Shaman Hearts"
"The Adventure Store" 1997 -- Detail of "Shaman Hearts"

Statement

- classical Hollywood narrative
- tooled leather goods
- cannibalism as metaphor
- retail display

The objects and situations arising from this investigation initially appear within the comic-book Adventures of Oedipussy Tess, and then in galleries and museum gift shops under the umbrella of an enterprise entitled OPTCO. All of the items and subsidiary businesses contain the promise of function or closure, while most do not deliver. Claims of originality are forfeited at the level of materials used, craft traditions referred to, and structures commonly found in commercial settings.

The arrangement into which the objects settle mirrors that of capital's eventual obsorption of various heterogeneous debris. At OPTCO, elements which were initially disruptive to a metanarrative appear after having been co-opted, digested, and pasteurized for its sustenance.

In the word of Oedipussy Tess, "I love no object. My object is to love all."

1997 - Carol Jackson