Jeff “Jeffu” Warmouth
Jeff “Jeffu” Warmouth, Spudnik, (detail) 2007, mixed media installation, dimensions variable
Lent by the Artist
Jeffu is an art-world trickster and comedian who runs riot with visual and verbal puns in an astounding array of media. He has worked with photography, video, installations, book art, performance art, sculpture, and digital media–whatever he can lay his hands on to satirize art and culture. His recent projects/products have included, but are by no means limited to, a televised Wild West reality/game show which pitted artists against each other in questionable contests of skill, knowledge, and creativity (Art Show Down); a supermarket which featured his branded and canned body parts (SuperJEFFUMarket); video spoofs of sci-fi and martial arts movies played out by fruits and vegetable (Day of the Cabbage, among others); and live full-costume Japanese monster wrestling events (Kaiju Big Battel).
His latest extravaganza, SPUDNIK, is based entirely on a stupid pun. With video, dioramas, sculpture, and photographs, Jeffu simultaneously pokes fun at the political history of the space program, American cuisine, consumer culture, and–of course–the pomposity of museum displays. — Nick Capasso, Curator
“My artistic investigations have centered for years on food and humor: I use puns, gags, and comic twists to subvert logic, language, identity, and culture. I begin with a ludicrous idea derived from brainstorming, sketching, suggestions, or just out of thin air. I’m still not sure where they all come from, but I have to trust the ones that make me laugh. I then exhaustively research to generate comedic source material.
SPUDNIK is a sci-fry tale of space exploration by potatoes during the Cold Storage War. As a kid, I read and wrote science fiction, designed space ships, and built working model rockets, all with the dodgy craftsmanship expected of a ten-year-old boy. I may be trying to recapture this sincere, creative, rough-edged spirit of my pre-adolescent years through the wanton use of food-based puns and silver spray paint. Or I may just be playing with my food.” — Jeff “Jeffu” Warmouth
Jeff “Jeffu” Warmouth will present an Artist Talk on Saturday, June 16 at 3 pm.
Warmouth will be the Guest Artist for the Eye Wonder Family Program on Sunday,
July 22, drop-in from 1 - 3 pm.
