Friday, October 25, 2013

Luke, I am your mother…

Immediately I was amused by Ianna Nova Frisby’s new series of Darth Vader-inspired sculptures.  And that was enough to make me love them.  But the more I looked and the more I thought about it, these are just so delightfully subversive on many levels.

They could be seen as a parody of the collectible Star Wars kitsch sold on the pages of Parade Magazine or the Lillian Vernon Catalog.  I’ve never been in a home with Star Wars collector’s plates hanging on the wall.  I doubt I could keep a straight face.  And then there are all those figurines. For example, there is the one of the scantily clad Princess Leia as a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt.  I had the pleasure of seeing Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show and sat two rows behind George Lucas as Fisher berated him over those figurines (she never received a dime for those). 

I also love the feminization of the iconic villain.  Particularly due to the generally male-dominated, sexist universe depicted in that galaxy, far, far away – there are few females in the Lucasverse and even fewer strong, independent women.  It’s worse than Mad Men.  

You can get a look in person at Luke’s Mother at Axis Gallery up in Sacramento for the 20th Annual Pink Week happening in November.

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