The Phatory is pleased to announce a new installation in the gallery’s window by Joe Lewis entitled Mutant Monkey Business which will be on view starting Sunday, May 1st, through Friday, May 22nd. All are welcome to the unveiling, Sunday, May 1st, from 5 -7:00.
As “an advanced critique of Capitolism [sic]” Lewis recalls:
The first time I saw the scaffolding around the Capitol building it reminded me of a jungle gym. I remember how my young daughter used to climb all over the one in Washington Square Park, hang upside down, and jump from the top rungs into my arms – scaring the hell out of me. I’d set her down and off she’d go again, not a care in the world as she’d twist and turn, trying to fly. When I was a kid, they called them monkey bars. And that’s what comes to mind when I see our elected officials behind banks of microphones, imitating each other’s body language, twitching with hostility held in check by the thinnest veneer of civility. It always reminds me of a field trip I went on in third grade to the Central Park Zoo Monkey House. It was loud and smelled bad. One monkey had his back to the group but kept looking over his shoulder. Mrs. Fireburg was chattering away about something, and the monkey turned around, and I think he spits in her face. We were quickly ushered out of the building, but Mrs. Fireburg never came back to class. Today, I know what that monkey was doing – the same thing those guys are doing in the Capitol Building.
