Clifton Childree – Dream Cum Tru

Clifton Childree. DREAM–CUM-TRU. Installation at Locust Projects, October 2008. Courtesy Locust Projects

Locust Projects, Wynwood Art District - Miami

September 13 - October 31, 2008

 By Bryan Barcena

It is always refreshing to encounter the work of artists who truly understand and exploit the metamorphic qualities inherent in the white walls of a gallery. Viewers who chose to dive head first into Clifton Childree’s latest exhibition at Locust Projects, found that the mise en scène was one that provided for complete immersion into the artist’s oddly-enjoyable perverse playground.

The beauty, if that word can be used, of “Dream Cum Tru” is truly how complete an illusion Childree managed to create. Known for his vaudevillian dramas that juxtapose a kind of juvenile toilet humor and early twentieth century silent films, Dream Cum Tru gave us the chance to step into one of his sets and sought to provide visitors with a chance to become fully enveloped as the protagonist of this turn-of-the-century twisted fair. Upon entering the fair, visitors could immediately get a feel for how meticulously Childree had executed his vision. No object, surface or display broke out of character, including Childree himself. Although the installation looked natural and almost effortless, one could imagine the amount of work that preceded such a project; hand-painted and weathered signs, miniature mechanical sea galleons, projectors reeling away 16mm black-and-white film. Every element seemed plucked right out of the 1900’s.

Each of the installation vignettes provided a subversive twist on standard fair ground antics; a shooting gallery where the “shots” emanated from the target and not from the shooter; a maze that concluded in the ejaculation of the participant; a fecal rollercoaster, spanking booth and haunted house inhabited by a sex-toy riding widow. Integrated in several of the structures were films that flickered onto the rotting wood boards and provided some comic relief to the decrepit carnival with their scatological references; a ghostly bride who left only a trail of diarrhea for the living and a macro account of the creation of the cars for the fecal roller-coaster.

Further fleshing out the experience was the lively performance orchestrated by Childree, who served as a wildly-cockeyed narrator, hand-cranking film to offer viewers a selection of slapstick films. It was truly a delight to see the artist take command of the illusion first hand, riotously running across the stage and spewing water onto the audience. The audience laughed whole-heartedly at the grainy films, and it is hard to imagine any witness present was truly thinking of the film as part of an art installation.

The work of Clifton Childree truly functions to create an environment that exists on a level of pure enjoyment and experience, whether it be through film or through a large-scale installation like “Dream Cum Tru.” Installations such as this are not asking the viewer for interpretation or introspection; Childree is giving us an incarnated view into his amusing and inspired thought process. “Dream Cum Tru” is art that does not necessarily take itself seriously, but is seriously well done.