Museum District Day at Rice University Art Gallery
Wayne White’s installation proves a real crowd pleaser

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Thanks to Rice University Art Gallery, Houstonians got a welcome surprise last weekend during Museum District Day, a daylong event that opened 17 of the district’s museums and art galleries up to the public for free. At Rice, the community was treated to an interactive art installation and a chance to meet its creator, Wayne White. 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.”

For his installation at Rice Gallery, White created a large puppet head — 15 feet from cheek to cheek and 23 feet from chin to crown. The head represents a sleeping George Jones, the country music crooner whose song “Ragged but Right” inspired White to this feat.

“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.

On display until Oct. 18, “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” features many moving parts, including eyes that roll from sleep to wake, a mouth rigged with a pulley to open and shut with a snore and a puppet show dancing in the back of the puppet’s head. Of course, a swirling fan is also prominent.