Alex Podesta presents The Hero. Two boys ride a stuffed rabbit: SUPERSIZED. The giant stuffed animal has the scale of a baby elephant with white fur so soft it could be manufactured by Ty Inc. The rabbit’s extra-long ears are reminiscent of the Disney character Dumbo and hang to its feet, although the overall aesthetic more closely approximates something found in Japanese anime. A muzzle made out of a long thin red piece of string placed carefully over its mouth is being held by one of two manikin boys that are on top of the rabbit. The boys are identical and dressed alike. They wear typical boys clothing: Liberty overalls, long sleeved turtle necks, white tennis shoes. They have the mandatory burgundy adventuring towels of boyhood tied around their necks, acting as capes, identifying the lads as knights and heros. The boy in front takes charge of the string lead that harnesses the rabbit and the boy in back firmly holds his sword aloft.
All the properties of this sculpture are very playful and emphasize its “toy-like” quality, despite the scale. The idea for this sculpture looks like it came straight out of a story book, its physical presence seems ideal for an upscale toy store at the mall. This book, however, should not be judged by its cover and this idea didn’t start with this form. The playful use of rabbits and manikins is a theme in Podesta’s earlier work, which gives clues that allow us to contextualize this particularly impressive example. The titles of his work are all very true to the subject matter in the piece. For example, Self-Portrait as Bunnies (Hubris) is mixed media sculpture of two manikins dressed in fury bunny suits with only their faces, bare feet, and hands exposed. They lay stomach down , their feet in the sky, cooperatively playing with a stuffed white rabbit. Works like this and others are exactly what they say they are. In this one he honestly puts the word “hubris” in parenthesis letting us know he understands the dangers implicit in looking like a manikin in a bunny suit playing with a real fake bunny. He admits even more in The Hero because he is showing us his hero. The hero of boyhood, of untainted fantasy, of the flawed but glorious knights who charged forward to adventure in their peculiar, bunnified, imaginary world. The rabbit is the inspiration behind most of his other recent works which all include manikins dressed as rabbits. In effect The Hero is Podesta’s dedication piece to his favorite subject. The manikin twins back him up by showing us that this bunny is taking them on an adventure; this is their hero, the artist’s hero and why not our too? Podesta remains consistent in this and emphasizes his theme still further by putting two of the boys in the piece. It wouldn’t be an Alex Podesta if he didn’t: he obsessively puts a second iteration of the primary subject in many recent works, most usually a manikin dressed in a bunny suit, in case postmodernism were to overcome his dreams.
Both together and apart from his other work this sculpture has the feeling of a new approach to a universal theme. In the light of his wider practice, it is a new approach to a clearly established theme, an iteration of an iteration. Even more intriguing though is its success as a play within a play, isolated from Podestas world of rabbits, in the theatre of a gallery space, surrounded by and in conversation with a broad range of other works.
Matthew Baughman