Mary Tutwiler

Remember Rat Fink? Read on

by Mary Tutwiler

I don’t get it. I wandered into the show in the Side Gallery at the Acadiana Center for the Arts yesterday while I was looking for a copy of D’Jalma Garnier’s new book Louisiana Creole Fiddle Method (a first ever how-to combined with a DVD showing Garnier playing the tunes. You can get it from Louisiana Folk Roots.) The show, titled Rosie and Big Daddy Divine the Modern Glyph, is an utterly wild sculpture installation by Dewane Hughes (maker of last year’s Southern Open sculpture “Angle of the Dangle”).

Mounted deer heads, skeletal heads sporting antlers, disembodied hands, blinking hearts and heavy machinery are the elements that comprise these huge, wacky pieces. I was bowled over by their humor and heart and couldn’t get enough of wandering through the herd. I did get the show. But it references a cartoonist, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and the Kustom Kulture/Hot-rod movement of the 1960s. Remember Rat Fink? The term entered the vernacular just in time for me to use it on my little brother when he swiped my copy of Mad magazine.

So hey, for all you art and counterculture fans, if anybody can enlighten me about the connection, I’d sure be glad for some explanations. For everybody else, this show will only be up until the end of December, and it’s a kick in the pants. Go. Actually go today, the John Geldersma retrospective, Presence of Spirit, in the Main Gallery, will only be up through Dec. 19. You will kick yourself in the pants if you miss this through inertia.

The ACA is located at 101 Vermilion, downtown. Despite the construction on the new theatre, you can find the door. There’s no excuse not to go. Call 233-7060 for more info.

Photo: Stag Drag Deconstructed, mixed media, photo by Robin May