I took my parents and Grandma to see the Soil in Residence show yesterday and had yet another fulfilling experience with Joey Veltkamp‘s Rainbow Bears. I am totally pleased that they’re luxuriously spread across this giant wall. They bring humor, sex, and possibly dismay to a building that is predominantly filled with lamps. (The strangeness of this show has not left me.)
Some of the bears seem to be smiling sheepishly, some growling, and I’m not sure if it is a wrestle of love or war between the man-bear and bear-bear. The not-knowing makes for an unsettling feeling that floats delicately with the rainbow parade.
I think it is the combination of the medium (paint on paper), the tacks holding them to the wall, the curiosity of emotion, the vast space they traverse, and the resulting odd staccato rainbow that makes me certain that these bears need to be here.
