Circus Act
ill Foote-Hutton‘s Carnivale Pilgrimage conjures unsettling aspects of the circus while showing off her skills as a ceramist.
Anyone who attended the opening night for Foote-Hutton’s mixed-media installations knew to expect a good time when balloons attached to a hand rail led into the Green Door gallery. Foote-Hutton’s mother was dressed as a harlequin, and she strolled around playing with cone puppets, handing out cups of lemonade and popcorn, dispensing balloons and imparting hellos and goodbyes. A young girl, who was also in makeup, cryptically whispered two words — “Wake up” — to patrons within earshot. People were eating cotton candy while music — some of it serene, some of it horrific-sounding — was coming from somewhere. Unwittingly, it seemed, I’d hit the big top.
Half of the two-room gallery space was filled with different interpretations of carnival challenges: dart throwing, ring tossing and, more interesting, blood-red chalices designed to look like cup, string and ball games. The other half was given over to ceramic figures associated with the circus: lion tamers, clowns, elephants, monkeys and a female trapeze artist. To the right of the entryway was the concession stand, curtained off from the rest of the area.
Mostly hidden behind vellum screens were images of three characters from circus lore; above them were words in polari (a theater slang that grew out of London’s gay subculture in the 1950 and ’60s). Without prior knowledge of the language and its relationship to these pictures, though, I would have wondered what they meant and probably lost interest.
The best — and worst — work was on the second side of the gallery. There, oversized, overturned ceramic popcorn boxes dumped out paper in an imitation of falling popcorn, and a ceramic ringmaster, elephant and lion tamer posed on steel risers. My favorite character, though, was a diminutive clown. Intricate in construction, animated and jolly — practically alive — he was everything human circus clowns aspire to be. All of Foote-Hutton’s characters were visually interesting, amusing and engaging; they struck the perfect balance between whimsy and craft.
Nearby, the pretend-dart-throwing installation was much less engaging. A collection of red balloons attached to the wall with a “thrown” ceramic dart felt as if it had been included only to fill up the exhibition space.
Ultimately, Foote-Hutton proves skilled at making visually interesting and thematically coherent ceramic work. But I’m still creeped out by clowns. Carnivale Pilgrimage, through December 11 at the Green Door Gallery, 1229 1/2 Union in the West Bottoms, 816-421-6889.
