A mentor told artist Wilfred Sarr, “If you can’t be holy…then at least be funny.”
A conversation with artist Wilfred Sarr is about as linear as an axe murderer’s path to heaven. Or at least an alien’s path to the White House lawn.
Discussing his upcoming show “Mox Nix,” opening at Cannery Row Studios in Redondo Beach on Saturday, Wilfred Sarr references sources as disparate as Buster Keaton, Bob Dylan, Kali Yuga and Mad magazine.
“This show will have all different kinds of disjointed things, disparate things, all connected under the idea of ‘mox nix,’” Sarr said.
The show’s namesake comes from an Americanized version of a German expression (macht nichts)—meaning, “it doesn’t make any difference,” which Sarr picked up during his time as a GI stationed near Brücken. It is the natural progression of an idea that began with his 2009 Cannery Row exhibit, “The Dancer is the Answer,” and continued with his 2010 offering, “50 + 1 (What was the question?).”
“The answer and the question have become the same thing in the idea of, ‘It doesn’t make any difference,’” Sarr said. “I don’t care if it’s answer or question.”
Sarr’s show will feature 85 acrylic paintings, the majority of which are brand new. “I like to come down here with stuff people have never seen,” he said. Subjects include levitating and earth-bound Buddhas, mischievous alien-jokers, and psychedelic mandalas, as well as more conventional fare such as portraits and plein air landscapes.
Sarr is perhaps best known for his mandalas. He has produced around 150 since 1972. The “Mox Nix” selection, however, represent a sharp departure from the pointillist and rigorously geometric versions from years past. The older work stuck to the traditional mandalic structure, which revolves around a unifying focal point. Sarr’s new mandalas suppress any obvious center, inviting the viewer to engage in what the artist describes as, “a different exercise in looking…”
The painter exercises his own vision in his many landscape pieces, which he executes in groups of three. Sarr explores his current hometown of Santa Cruz, which he left Hermosa Beach for nearly a decade ago, with the help of a local guide named Blinkin, whom he describes as an ivy league-educated naturalist who abandoned the high life to make “an honest living.”
“He knows all the places,” Sarr marvels. “He knows the best swimming holes in the river. He knows where the most wonderful trees are, beaches, cliffs…”
Despite moving to Santa Cruz, Sarr has remained close with his old group of friends from the South Bay, many of whom are featured in his portrait series destined for “Mox Nix.” Most of the portraits are 16-inch by 20-inch, bust-length works. However, one whimsical riff on portraiture, entitled “Living Large,” depicts Sarr’s friend George in his homemade hot tub enjoying a martini.
For his Buddha series, Sarr presents the Enlightened One enveloped in lush, verdant junglescapes, often engaged in unexpected activities, such as reading magazines. One work shows Buddha reading Mad magazine, a publication that Sarr deems a symbol of enlightenment in its own right.
“I was a sophomore in high school when Mad magazine first appeared and it changed my life. It was a real awakener.”
Of course, Sarr acknowledges the humor in this unlikely pairing of pop culture and lofty spirituality. “I wanted to be a meditator,” he recalled. “I couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t me.” So Sarr went in another direction. “I had a mentor and he said, ‘If you can’t be holy…then at least be funny.”
This tongue-in-cheek approach pervades another of the artist’s new series, which centers on the figure of what Sarr calls the “alien-joker.” This character featured most recently in a performance piece Sarr put on last weekend at the intersection of Hermosa and Pier avenues. Intended as a spoof of Los Angeles artist Alex Schaefer’s recent depiction of a Van Nuys bank aflame, Sarr included his alien-joker as the plausible culprit in a scene showing the local Bank of America on fire.
The alien-joker, whom Sarr describes as a sort of “court jester from Saturn,” is sometimes depicted with a sign in its hands. One sign, “Exit,” was inspired by Bob Dylan lyrics that the artist says he has had stuck in his head since the 1970s.
“‘There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief.’ …You know, my whole life, I’ve been looking for a way out. How in the hell do you get out of here? I like the idea of the joker telling you, ‘Hey, there’s a way out of here.’”
The idea of exiting is ubiquitous in the alien-joker pieces. Of a joker holding a “Dream Over” sign, Sarr explained, “If we allow aliens, then a big part of our dream is over.” As to when this phenomenon might occur, Sarr confidently suggested, “About the time the aliens land on the White House lawn and say, ‘Here we are.’”
An opening reception for “Mox Nix” begins at 4 p.m. Saturday at Cannery Row Studios, 604 N Francisca, Redondo Beach. The closing party is Sunday, Oct. 30. Weekly hours in between are Monday through Friday 4 – 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 12-9 p.m. ER
