Showing from May 29 - June 12, 2023
ANNA GOLDING’s Bust is a series of four explosive boxes. Each bust is titled the name of a character from Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes who activates an explosive box in some way that backfires on them. The busts are: Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and Marvin the Martian.
ANNA has been exploring cartoon tropes and weapons since October of 2022. She extracts these tropes and weapons from 2D screenings or memories of screenings and crafts them into 3D objects out of unconventional materials to be experienced in our non-cartoon reality. Bust is an in-depth look at the explosive plunger box. The explosive plunger box is a violent object often used in cartoons and like most weapons in cartoons, its presence comes with a heavy dose of karma. The object itself is simple, a square or rectangular box with two knobs on opposite sides and a ‘T’-shaped plunger going into the top that triggers the explosion. The busts ANNA creates are not this simple. Each bust is made to personify the character it is named after and sits static on the floor while ‘explosive’ wires are excitedly jumbled in the air above them, much like a frustrated overhead scribble. Because these characters -at one point or another- meet violent ends with explosive boxes, the busts also act like decorative tombstones.
The show title ‘Bust’ is a word that has several meanings. Bust as a shortened form of the word combust, sending itself and everything in its vicinity ablaze. Bust as an art historical term meaning an artwork representing the head and shoulders. Bust as a failed attempt. ANNA welcomes the shifting meaning of the title. That’s all Folks!
About the Artist
ANNA GOLDING (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist located in Guelph, ON working in sculpture, drawing, and installation. Her art practice combines elements of risk and humour, creating and manipulating charged objects, lately these have been dynamite sticks. She recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honours from the University of Guelph where she developed an affinity for using spray paint in her sculptures and as a medium for drawing with hand-cut stencils.
ANNA is attracted to the lawless abandon and simplicity of cartoons (emphasis on the ‘lawless’ as she is also heavily influenced by street art). The cartoon laws seen in Looney Tunes are processes she enacts in her sculptural practice. She leans into the effects of increased flexibility and precarity, usually working against ‘gravity’ and juxtaposes rich cartoon-y objects within our reality. On the most broad terms, ANNA is in the game of creating icons and the iconic in all forms.
Available Work
Wile E. Coyote, 9.5” x 9.5” x 32”, wood and spray painted plastic PVC, 2023, $300
Daffy Duck, 8.5” x 12” x 21”, wood and black felt, 2023, $300
Yosemite Sam, 14” x 16” x 36”, wood and white fabric, 2023, $300
Marvin the Martian, 22” x 22” x 20”, wood and broom bristles, 2023, $300