Waiting to Explode: Richie Budd and Jimmy Kuehnle
Lawndale Art Center - January 22 - March 3, 2007
I teamed up with Richie Budd to exhibit in Waiting to Explode at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas. Margo Handwerker of the Museum of Fine Art Houston curated us into the show. I had shown with Richie and Brian Jobe previously at the UTSA Satellite show Siamese Triplets. Richie and I had both received our MFA so this was our professional post-graduate debut in Houston. This time it was a clash of dueling artistic energies that mixed together with a welcoming crowd. The presence of Richie's bright and sensory overloading sculptural installation and my bouncing inflatable suit almost took emphasis away from the other exhibits while the noisy and chaotic opening unfolded.
Different elements helped contribute to the sporadic nature of the exhibit from Richie's animated machine to my inflatable rip-stop nylon suit. The working title given to us was "Boy Energy From San Antonio." We countered with "Blue Balls: Waiting to Explode" and compromised on "Waiting to Explode: Richie Budd & Jimmy Kuehnle."
In order to leave a lasting impression on the Houston art crowd we asked George Zupp to cater the event with his unique catalogue of gourmet treats. George and I had previously teamed up in Nacho Volcano. George Zupp turned the heads of guests from the Andy Warhol Foundation with his signature mackerel dip. Rather than the normal wine and cheese George Zupp, a texas artist, whipped up an American feast of beenie weenies and hand molded mackerel log with lots of tasty insides. George also made a big plate of nacho chips and a crock pot full of Velveeta Cheese and Bennie Weenies.
Inside the gallery I presented "binary drawings" representing the information transmitted over the web to display the logos on various corporate web sites, including Disney, Google, and Microsoft. The drawings complete with corrected human error contained thousands of handwritten ones and zeros. I also showed a video demonstrating how to count to 1023 on your hands, in binary. These drawings were first exhibited at the C-Art Studio in San Antonio, Texas in a show called Jimmy in Binary