THE UNUSUAL AT 1078

For the month with the Dead of the Dead in it, the 1078 Gallery always presents something a little unusual. This year it's "Viva Luscious!", a body of work by San Francisco artist Isabel Samaras.

As the press release for the show states, "(The) exhibition is inspired by (Samaras') fascination with the martyrdom of celebrities, and the fantasy lives of cartoon characters."

Samaras says of her work, "I...find the deification of dead presidents, celebrities and other heroes very compelling: that it doesn't seem to matter how they died or what kind of wonderfully squalid lives they led inspires me to explore the nature of their martyrdom."

Samaras paints in acrylics on tin TV trays and wooden game boards and often cleverly combines fine art references and/or cultural icons to suggest an attitude towards public and mythic figures.

Remember how shocked everyone was when Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow? Here's that "monstrous" event presented in a slightly different light. In an allusion to the famous outtake from the 1930's film version of "Frankenstein" "Frank and Mia" appear as a black and white image on a TV tray. Frank is cast as the monster who dallies in childish play with the little girl (Mia) and later kills her.

Samaras seems to enjoy this allusion because "Frank" appears again, mike in hand before a red velvet curtain, as a croonin' Frankenstein. So do "Dean" (Martin) and "Sammy" (Davis Jr.) appear on wooden game boards as Dracula and the Wolfman.

A reference to fine art is worked into "The Assumption of Elvis." I tried in vain to find a reproduction of the original work that Elvis' "Assumption" is based on. I think the original may have had Venus being assumed into Heaven with the assistance of a multitude of putti. Nevertheless, here the hardworking cherubs, hundreds it seems, huff and puff to push a bloated, lime-green Elvis into his place among the clouds.

One of the works that earned Samaras an award in the "Countdown 2000" exhibition is included in this exhibition. "Forever" hints at a secret passion. Does Catwoman actually love Batman? She must, for sprawled in a pose similar to one of Boucher's infamous odalisques, she's having his logo tattooed in the small of her back.

Witty and clever, Isabel Samaras' are sometimes shocking for a slight tinge of cruelty, as if public figures, particularly dead ones, are fair game for anything she has to say. Perhaps, though, it's also the question she explores of the public's cruelty expressed through an intensity of interest in every intimate detail of the lives and deaths of famous people.

Michele French
Chico Enterprise-Record
October 19, 1996