ART

This is the first iteration of Big Surprise, my first sculpture during grad school. Its based on a conversation I was listening to about fast food mascots. They were trying to remember different mascots. At some point one of them described a large chicken with a hamburger for a head, like Mayor McCheese. I thought it was a great idea for a sculpture about fast food mascot figuration. My interpretation is closer to an ostrich, and shown here in an early stage.

I carved it in styrofoam and surfaced it with cut up plastic inflatable beach balls. I used a yellow happy face for the body, footballs for the feet and bun, and a shark for the burger.

I used a heat gun to melt all the beach ball plastic.

The styrofoam also melts and reveals a few seams of glued section. To me, this neck detail reads like its choking on something.

Due to the weight of the head, the sculpture was top heavy and wouldn’t stand up on its own. Inspired by the tree trunk supports carved around the legs of ancient marble statues, I tied a cartoonish gas can to its foot, as if it threatening to set itself on fire and cook itself, as a funny surprise, like the toy inside a Happy Meal.

The burger head is carved in parts. The shark fin holds it in place.

I used glass eyes for the shark’s eyes, peering through holes cut into a Silly Putty container. I placed them within the existing eyes of the shark shaped beach ball skin.

I think this is the only part of this sculpture that still exists, but I don’t know where it might be.

I added a mouth and nose from an alligator beach ball. The alligator snout doubles as a pickle.

I added more condiments and toppings using more pieces of beach balls.

Here is the shark burger, with cheese made from more happy face balls.

The size of the inflatable shark ball determined the size of the burger, and it was a good fit for the 6 foot tall monster.

It was my first time carving styrofoam.

I mounted the glass eyes in human eye sockets sculpted in epoxy. I wish I had a better photo.

The scale of the shark’s eyes on the inflatable are also a perfect fit for human eyes.

I hid the sculpted human eye sockets behind these coverings as a way to bring people into the space of the sculpture. If you wanted to see these eyes, you can only discover it’s human features by getting very close to it.

The glass eyes give the sculpture a soul or personhood, like the trick portrait painting with holes for eyes that follow you in the room, a human trapped inside the beast gazing out in mute terror, unable to even blink.

Here is a small clay sketch

I did a bunch of cartoon sketches as well