[FIPS Was There...] David Lynch Art Opening at Tilton Gallery

When I think of David Lynch films, I think of three scenes in particular:

#1: That scene in Blue Velvet where Dennis Hopper kneels on the floor before Isabella Rossellini’s crotch, huffing amyl nitrate & screaming things like "Baby wants to fuck!"

#2: In Eraserhead, the dinner scene, where a mother orgasms on one side of the dinner table while a tiny roasted chicken oozes dark liquids from between its legs onto the serving tray.

#3: The opening scene of Wild at Heart, where Laura Dern screams as Nicolas Cage brutally murders a man by smashing his head against a stairwell railing, tossing him down a flight of stairs, repeatedly bashing his skull into the floor & then picking him up with a brain & blood SLURP off the floor & throwing him against a wall for good measure.

TOTALLY normal stuff. SO not disturbing...& I LOVE IT ALL.

...so when I found out that this past Friday there was going to be an opening night event for an exhibit of David Lynch's art at the Tilton Gallery way up north in the Upper East Side, I was rather intrigued. When I learned that the man who brought us Twin Peaks, Mr. Lynch himself, was going to be in attendance, I was sold.

...so after work on Friday, clad in my tie & slacks office garb, I headed up to the opening with my trusty companion James Call (of The Missing Teens infamy). He'd declared earlier in the day that of his lifelong heroes, he'd previously met Elvis Costello, John Flansburgh & Paul Krugman. He'd yet to cross paths with David Lynch & David Byrne though. Tonight would change that...I guess.

When we arrived, there was a line complete with artsy & civilian types alike stretching down a good portion of East 76th. After about a half-hour wait, we finally made it into the gallery, which is housed inside two floors of an Upper East Side townhouse.

On the first floor, there was a single piece in the front hallway called "No Santa Claus." It was the piece featured in the press release for the show, as it incorporated many of the elements used in a majority of the pieces--colored light bulbs, lots of textured paint & what appeared to be painted porcelain enamel, all presented in a gold frame.

Down the hallway there was a back room with two massive pieces that each took up an entire wall & a few smaller ones.

"Light Fire Boy" (a title I've given it based on the raised metal words incorporated into the piece) was one of the two huge pieces. Since it featured a long-armed baby figure lighting matches, you can surmise that...um...well...David Lynch is ace at creating disturbing images...dirty, burnt, creepy images.

The smaller pieces were more of sketches, with phrases written on them like "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" & images like a truck shining its headlights onto two bodies who are either fucking or wrestling or waltzing...while the smoke monster from LOST attacks them.

Upstairs was where the real action was though. In the front of the townhouse, there was one large room filled with Lynch's work. The moment that we walked in, the main attraction seemed to be Lynch, with his big white hair, surrounded by folks with iPhone cameras & autograph pens. At that particular moment, I'd say 70-80% of the folks in that room couldn't care less about the art. It was fucking weird. We decided to not add to the celebrity worship.

This front room was where all the real good stuff was. On the right hand wall, there were a number of black & white photos that had been manipulated into disturbing jumbles of body parts. The rest of the walls had more of the pieces that combined the copious paint, enamel, fabric, lightbulbs & gold frames.

There were pieces like "Boys Night Out," where the words "Daddy’s home" emblazoned across a child figure's chest hinted at something sinister about a father's return after a night of cocktails at Jackie's Fifth Amendment.

The last part of the exhibit was a back room where a projected thirty-second film loop played on one wall. It showed a hand floating onto the screen & an egg with eyeballs that hatched & oozed & sparked. OBVIOUSLY. On another wall, there was a painting that was pretty much obscured by the fact that the room was darkened so that the film could be projected.

So what was the Lynch exhibit trying to achieve? Fuck if I know. I absolutely loved it but shit was creepy & once again made me wonder what in god's name goes on in David Lynch's head & why he wants to inject it into our heads. So yeah...you've got a whole month to decide for yourself what it all means. The exhibit's up until April 14th & won't feature an appearance by the artist.

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com.