Ragged but right installation transforms Rice Gallery into puppet show
Houston heat, George Jones inspire new installation opening Sept. 10

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

While the plaza in front of Sewall Hall is getting a makeover, there’s much more exciting construction going on within the building in Rice Gallery, where artist Wayne White is creating a large puppet head — 15 feet from cheek to cheek and 23 feet from chin to crown. The head is of a sleeping George Jones, the country music crooner whose song “Ragged but Right” inspired White to this feat.

	NASH BAKER Opening Celebration Artist will give gallery talk about work Don’t miss the opening celebration for “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10, with artist Wayne White offering a gallery talk at 6 p.m. White will give another gallery talk at noon Sept. 11.

“There’s a phrase in it — ‘a big ‘lectric fan to keep me cool while I sleep’ — that came to me and stuck in my head when I visited Houston,” White recalled. “This work is my reaction to Houston. I kept thinking of hot Houston nights before air conditioning and the young George Jones in this city, full of crazy artistic passion and making music history.”

The installation, “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep,” includes a giant puppet head lying on its side with revolving fan blades at the base of the neck, eyes that cycle from sleep to wake and a mouth that opens and shuts with an audible snore. A special cutout in the back of the head allows viewers to peek into the sleeping puppet’s dreams.

“This is fun; it’s entertaining,” White said of his creation. “It crosses the realms of art and entertainment. It’s puppetry. It’s a carnival. It’s fun for all ages. I hope it triggers something different for everyone who takes it in.”

The young, flat-topped Jones, circa 1950, is made from wood crates covered in carved Styrofoam and plaster. The Styrofoam arrived in 8-by-4-by-4-foot blocks and was physically tough to manipulate and released toxins when cut by hot wire. Despite the unexpected difficulty, White is on schedule to complete the piece.

“I’m really pleased with our progress,” White said. “This is a very ambitious project. Though the scale is not new to me, the head is the biggest object I’ve ever created. This is the biggest installation I’ve done of my own work.”

The Rice Gallery installation is hardly White’s first experience with puppets. Best known as the three-time Emmy-winning creator of many of the puppets in the late-’80s television hit “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” White has done production design and art direction for numerous television shows, advertisements and music videos, including Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight.”

NASH BAKER
The installation “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” includes a giant puppet head lying on its side with revolving fan blades at the base of the neck, eyes that cycle from sleep to wake and a mouth that opens and shuts with an audible snore.

Most recently, White has become known for meticulously painting irreverent and humorous phrases on top of thrift-store lithographs depicting romantic, 19th-century renditions of pastoral landscapes and seascapes. Dubbed by one journalist as “the weirdest landscape painter in America,” White uses master-painting techniques to create the illusion of words and phrases surreally disappearing into the horizon or jutting out from each lithograph’s placid settings.

So what brought White to Houston? The opportunity to work at Rice Gallery.

“Rice Gallery is a dream gig for an artist,” he said. “There’s a decent budget, complete artistic freedom, a beautiful space and wonderful assistance. I couldn’t be happier. “

Rice Gallery
Mark your calendar for all the upcoming exhibits at the Rice Gallery

White said he was thrilled to be selected to create work for Rice Gallery because of its “well-deserved” reputation in the art world.

“Then I saw the space and couldn’t have been happier,” White said. “I saw there were two ways of tackling it — either through complexity or monumentality. My gut choice was to do something monumental. Something in the center, something big.”

And that’s exactly what he’s doing. Despite Rice Gallery’s large window, you won’t be able to see the completed installation until it opens Sept. 10. White and his team have covered the windows to help keep the element of surprise. But even once the concealing papers are down, there will still be treasures to discover: Look for a special room in back and the opportunity to make the puppet move.

The opening celebration for “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 with a gallery talk at 6 p.m. White will give another gallery talk at noon Sept. 11.