ACAC: Act III – The Act of Acting, Opening Reception
Date/Time
Date(s) - January 18, 2025
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
75 Beauregard Street
Categories
Alabama Contemporary Art Center is galloping into the new year as a Museum Without Walls with its first pop-up warehouse show opening January 18. Act III – The Act of Acting, a new exhibition by Atlanta-based artist Shawn Campbell, will transform the old Standard Equipment Company at 75 Beauregard Street in Mobile into a movie set that teases out the Mythos of the American Cowboy.
Campbell is known for pithy nostalgia embodied by a multimedia approach to sculpture that masquerades as strange new forms pumped out of the pop culture machine of old. Pulling references from the silent film era all the way up to Pee Wee’s Playhouse, in the context of Campbell’s work, Cowboy mythology is anything but a fixed point. This world within a world offers up campy, playful, and cutting revisions of what we imagine a cowboy to be. A full scale installation sets the stage for a subversive reclamation of masculine tropes, old, new and wildly off center. The set is where some obscure B movie played out, a karaoke machine looping Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, a cowboy makeup kit and anything else you need to explore your chaps-wearing, lasso-looping aspirations.
The opening reception for Act III – The Act of Acting is January 18, 2025 from 6 to 9 p.m.at 75 Beauregard Street. The Bailiwicks will play throughout the night, with a Glen Campbell-inspired karaoke contest at 7:30 p.m. Entry to this event is by donation, and attendees are encouraged to dress in their finest western wear, as well as bring their own seating and refreshments if desired. Popcorn will be provided.
This exhibition is available for viewing by appointment, or during special programming facilitated by Alabama Contemporary. For more information, visit alabamacontemporary.org/exhibitions or email info@alabamcontemporary.org.