TODT

SIDESHOW
October 2006

Artist collaboratives seem to come and go, but TODT chugs on. This group (who maintain their secret identities like supper hero’s) have been working together since the late 70s. After a notoriously successful run during the booming art epic of the East Village eighties, TODT retreated to the heartlands. With this, their third exhibition at Sideshow, we are invited to view their unique appreciation of fly-over America. “Reaper” (2006) is a perfectly restored piece of farm equipment that had undergone the TODT refurbishment. Razor sharp blades, spring loaded spikes and leather harness imply a sense of the sadomaschisistic to counter Grant Wood’s all American Regionalism. Other works have the twisted charm of souvenirs picked up at a roadside shop, but with bizarre transformations that displays the macabre nature of an alternative “American Gothic.”

—James Kalm