WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN
AND THE VENUS OF WILLENDORF:
THE SUBURBAN YEARS
This invented history is more than a bit autobiographical, and since I have taken the part of William Tecumseh Sherman (complete with 19th C. frock coat), the resulting photographs are essentially self-portraits. Nonetheless, the gist of the story is probably more about my father (and consequently memories of my childhood) since it was he - not I - who served in a war-time army, and who, badly wounded and traumatized, had to adjust to 1950s-style suburban life. Suburbia being the timeless dream world that it is, I have nonetheless undated it to represent contemporary times.
The part of the Venus of Willendorf is played by an amalgam of Styrofoam, kitty litter and acrylic paint. Her role as Sherman ’s companion might seem a case of weird casting, but to me she makes perfect sense: she is as famous as Sherman (appropriately “in the arts” as befits her gender) and sexy in a Jayne Mansfield kind of way. Since the actual Venus of Willendorf is a three and a half inch tall, 15,000 year old carved stone fertility symbol, she is undoubtedly a figment of Sherman’s imagination, perhaps a vestige of his wasted liberal arts education.
There are also collages built around the photos, with the intention of creating the overall look of a scrap book. The pages shown here represent perhaps four times that number. One plaster figure – “The Winged Victory of Lawn Mowing” - is also shown. It has three companions, representing victories over vinyl siding, furnace maintenance and gutter cleaning.