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ABOUT THE ART
INSTALLATIONS
The installations by Stephen Funk are unbounded explosions of color and imagination. Expansive dreamscapes illustrate a subconsciously woven epic tale about the human soul in which a huge cast of characters acts out scenes with mythological and visionary resonance. In the installations "Brood" (2005) and “Beyond the Valley” (2006), hundreds of cherubic and grotesque babies swarm through various stages of this universe, as though marching on an endless pilgrimage with a yet-to-be revealed destination. Larger characters, including a pale life-giving creator, an 8-foot-tall glowing messianic baby, and a 10-foot-long masticating and digesting monster, punctuate different phases and transitions experienced by the intrepid pilgrims.
In a subsequent installation entitled “The Big Parade” (2007), the babies reappear, but this time they are inspired on their mysterious tromp by a floating angel who has just strummed a power cord on his electric guitar. The torrent of guitar-frenzied babies catalyzes a full-fledged parade. Giant, gravity defying floats tower over the viewer, while an assortment of revelers march along in celebratory stride. The oversized floats suggest grand themes related to the cycle of life, and brim with an endless variety of characters that add nuance to these themes. The viewer quickly notices that he or she is not alone in observing the parade. Ghostly faces peer out at the scene through rows of windows on the buildings that line the parade route.
Funk seamlessly combines classical with pop and kitsch esthetics. He uses traditional printmaking techniques to create the characters, which are rendered in a style suggestive of the European Renaissance. At the same time, his installations are entirely assembled using lowbrow and synthetic materials such as craft foam, faux-fur and neon-colored felt. By incorporating these materials, which are specific to the contemporary consumerist society, and by using them to create scenes of a timeless and universal realm, he hopes to force a connection in the viewers mind between the present and the infinite, the profane and the sacred.
PRISMATIC MOSAICS
From 2001 - 2003, Funk made a series of mosaics using prismatic, or holographic, plastic sticker paper. As with the materials used in his installations, he chose this material because of its association with our flashy and cheap consumerist culture. In contrast to its baseness, he used this shiny, color-shifting material to create strikingly ornate, jewel-like images which may recall Byzantine mosaics. Generally, the figures represented are facing spiritual crossroads, or they embody different spiritual states. While this work speaks the language of irony and kitsch, it is subversively laced with heartfelt expressions of beauty and spirituality.
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