This incredible tour de force by Kim Adams is in the 4th year of a proposed 10 year project. It presents a unique opportunity for us to see a work in progress and to engage in a fictional world that is both magnificent and apocalyptic.
Kim Adams
This incredible tour de force by Kim Adams is in the 4th year of a proposed 10 year
project. It presents a unique opportunity for us to see a work in progress and to
engage in a fictional world that is both magnificent and apocalyptic.
Bruegel-Bosch Bus is created from a Volkswagon van that has been cut to expose
territories of leisure and industry - each encroaching on the other. Embracing a
world of mischief and disorder, Adams uses model kits, toys, and HO scale figures
to create various areas like those found in an amusement theme park.
In this colossal work we experience a kind of "grotesque" realism where we witness
grand museums created from old industrial sites, a steel plant spewing out (toxic?)
waste, a strike of industrial workers ready and armed with an ultimatum, a territory
where John Lennon teaches "peace" to frolicking superheroes and a movie production
complex ready for "action." Like the historical artists for which the piece is
named, Adams creates landscapes and scenes of daily life that stress the absurd
and vulgar but are also imbued with zest and fine detail. Adams has created a mobile
hybrid creation that is exorbitant and continues to grow (even the gallery's doors
were rebuilt to accommodate it!) Like Bruegel's Tower of Babel it is a parasite too
big for its host. Astute, playful, serious and enticing, this marvellous work is an
invitation to look at ourselves and the values we entertain.
Image: Kim Adams
Bruegel-Bosch Bus (detail), work in progress.
Photo: Paul Litherland
Collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton
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12 - 5 p.m. Friday
10 - 5 p.m. Saturday
1 - 5 p.m. Sunday
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1306 Lakeshore Road
Oakville, Ontario, Canada L6J 1L6
Tel: (905) 844-4402
Fax: (905) 844-7968