We told you a couple days ago about the upcoming art exhibition of work by Michelle Rawlings (the daughter of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings), which starts Jan. 21 at the Oliver Francis Gallery. In perusing the young artist’s website for material about which I might make snarky remarks, one item initially escaped my attention.
It was on my second time through that I looked more carefully at the image you see at right, labeled simply as “uncle – installation.” The strikingly mustachioed man is the focus of the work, so one can easily be forgiven in not noticing the shirtless fellow to the right on the novelty Playgirl cover. Damned if that didn’t look like Mayor Rawlings himself. And it is.
Michelle confirmed as much, via email. And the story she shared about this wonderfully goofy mock magazine cover was surprisingly heartfelt:
That photo was from a time my Dad and Uncle and I were at the West End. I was about 12 and we all put on costumes and took pictures in one of those fake magazine photo booths. I remember that afternoon really well, my Uncle died suddenly only a couple years after that.
The work was intended to deal with the memory of my Uncle who I’ve always wished I had known better. It was also intended to show how on the surface, a picture seems like one thing, but there is a story underneath that complicates our assumptions, and what we think we know about what we see. The image becomes something entirely different when we learn something new, and the meaning of it shifts.
It is on my website because I felt it was an essential part of a larger group of portraits I completed last year. That work was about showing how there are images we encounter in daily life which become questionable when taken out of context. When we see something that makes us uncomfortable, it reminds that we are each ultimately alone to navigate our sense of morality, and our feelings towards others.
If my work seems like I am making a joke, it is only because I think jokes are sometimes the most serious things people say.
I asked the Mayor’s office for confirmation as well, and his chief of staff has promised she has some material about the artwork. As soon as she sends it my way, I’ll share that.
