Boite at Minas Gallery. Photo by Philip Laubner.
Boîte: Show and Tell
When you’re a kid and something totally awesome comes into your possession it can be hard to contain oneself whilst imagining the shear wonderment you will impress upon your classmates. There, in front of the wide-eyed rows of peers transfixed upon your every word, you imagine yourself orating a narrative so potent that stories about the story you told would be recounted for generations.
Your legend would fuse into the annals of elementary school history and it is quite possible that one of the kids in your class has a father who’s a newsman and when he finds out, they do a story and you become famous. Then someone calls you because they want the rights to a movie about your life and they ask you to play yourself in the movie. That’s how you get rich and eventually become a movie star. As a matter of fact I’m pretty sure that’s how Danny DeVito got discovered and that, my friends, is the magic of Show and Tell. In a roundabout way, that’s why all of these people have been packing the upstairs of Minás Gallery in Hampden for Boîte: Show and Tell.
Photo by Philip Laubner, story by Peter Cardamone.
Photo by Philip Laubner
R.M. O’Brien and Ben O’Brien.
Enter R.M. O’Brien with his mystery CD. O’Brien put the CD in, sat down casually to the side and let us all listen to a recording of a random morning show interview with Tony Danza and his biggest fan, Larry Huntley. I expected something unexpected but in the end it played out like typical talk radio. The revelation came as O’Brien started telling us the story of his younger brother, Ben O’Brien, who one day during his first year at college, found the inspiration to build a fake fan site that was devoted to the magnificence of one Mr. Tony Danza. Once the website was there the next logical step was to create its host and ultimate Tony Danza fan Larry Huntley or R.M. O’Brien depending on which side of the phone call you’re on. The website received enough attention that it attracted the notice of an early morning radio show who took to picking on poor Larry, who, by this time, had manifested two dimensionally in the form of a bio and poorly photoshopped picture of a peculiar looking gentleman. After a year of taunting Larry the morning show arranged for an interview with Tony Danza, in the flesh, by Larry Huntley, a figment of O’Brien’s imagination.
Photo by Philip Laubner, story by Peter Cardamone.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Stephanie Barber rigged up a camera to a monitor so we could watch her as she went to the back of the room to play an album by Montana John, a musician and functioning drunk/hoarder who lived next door to Stephanie as a child. The recording was of an old school country song, whiskey soaked and heartfelt. Not the best quality, but you could hear so much of a weathered and worn life in John’s voice. This was interesting but what really entranced the audience were Stephanie’s stories of her childhood. Stephanie, the masterful story teller that she is, kept our full attention and left us wanting more when she finished.
Photo by Philip Laubner, story by Peter Cardamone.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Jackie Milad and Tom Boram are a gregarious couple who regaled us with pictures of their recent trip to Italy. We followed them on their trek from trash heaps of Naples to the piazzas of Rome. Not only did I learn something by the end but I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
Photo by Philip Laubner, story by Peter Cardamone.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Jackie Milad and Tom Boram
Photo by Philip Laubner.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Boîte is the creative offspring of Lauren Bender. I asked her how she thought up doing the series and to this she replied, “I uncovered some of my childhood writings and drawings, which included my correspondence with the U.S. Army when I was six years old and wished that there was some way for people to share this kind of thing. I also like the idea of adults doing childish things…I thought that Show and Tell would be a way to elicit some creative honesty from artists and encourage some type of non-cheesy intimacy.” She has been doing this for over a month and with a crowd of avid followers and constant newcomers.
Photo by Philip Laubner, story by Peter Cardamone.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Photo by Philip Laubner.
Photo by Philip Laubner
Photo by Philip Laubner.
