No Monkey Business

Photo by: Paige Lunde

Written and Media by Paige Lunde.


Here at Greenville College, we have art shows from time to time. Sometimes it’s a show with students work and other times, it’s a show consisting of guest artists like it was last Tuesday night. On Tuesday night, we had the privilege of having J. David Carlson present his show, “No Monkey Business.” J. David Carlson is from L.A.

One figurine David Carlson made. Photo by Paige Lunde.

Tuesday’s show showcased toys manipulated into objects that they otherwise would never be in. To the left, you can see one art piece that shows a soldier with a monkey’s face (hence the name of the show “No Monkey Business”). You wouldn’t typically see a lot of art like this just laying around these days in most places (though there are a few artists who would love this in their homes). When asked what his motivation was for making pieces like these, Carlson said “Motivation stems from the study and relationship that toys have in culture and a lot of my research comes from the history of toys as well as play theory. Also in relation to object relation so how we associate with objects and in the sense, toys.”

 

“Motivation stems from the study and relationship that toys have in culture and a lot of my research comes from the history of toys as well as play theory. Also in relation to object relation so how we associate with objects and in the sense, toys.” -J. David Carlson

More figurines from the art show. Photo by Paige Lunde.

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Some wall hanging art. Photo by Paige Lunde.

When asked, he pointed out that the pieces like the toy manipulated tomahawk and gun (shown to the right) were made back in 2014 (and there were other pieces like these like a larger gun and that as well, not just these two pieces) and the rest of the show (shown everywhere else in the article) was done in the last six months, since August. Obviously, Carlson knows what he’s doing since the designs on these are meticulous. Carlson’s attention to detail is really impeccable and every single one of his pieces are simply extraordinary. He said with some of them, “I’m not really manipulating the toy itself, but I’m expanding the toy beyond its expectation or its design, to create a new story and then the rest of the toys that are in here have all been manipulated by me to kind of continue on into a new version of the story that they might have told in their original form.”

I’m expanding the toy beyond its expectation or its design, to create a new story and then the rest of the toys that are in here have all been manipulated by me to kind of continue on into a new version of the story that they might have told in their original form. -J. David Carlson

Some more of the figurines from the show. Photo by Paige Lunde.

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So, you can see by the pictures, Carlson really does know what he’s doing and he does an excellent job at it. When asked when he knew he wanted to do this for a living, he simply replied, “Since I was about two.” And, really, doesn’t that make sense? Because every great artist knows since they are able to remember thoughts and actions that this is what they are supposed to do in the world: to make art and live in the moment and that’s exactly what Carlson’s doing.

Mary Krauss, Jonathan Bremer and Tawnie Kozora standing in front of the wallpaper. Photo by Paige Lunde.

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