For one night only, artist Anthony D’Amico invites you to his Glass Candy Factory where a meshing of nostalgia and social upheaval tingle all the senses. [“Gummies with Glocks”]
D’Amico’s father, a dentist, once told him that if you looked at society as a tooth, everything that has a sugary sweet exterior has a big black cavity that resides at its core. D’Amico has looked at society, and he’s distraught. He wants others to open their eyes to what is happening around them. Here, D’Amico on what to expect from his Glass Factory, one night of social awareness.
The show is a direct backlash to present-day society. There is a lot of humor involved, and there is a lot of mocking, but there is a moment when things are very real.
Since Columbine, [people being gunned down] is not news anymore. The only thing that has gotten me has been watching [James] Foley have his head hacked through by ISIS, and that’s what it takes. We’ve become immunized, homogenized, pasteurized. We’re lifeless. We’re drones.
I’m creating different socio and economic classes, so when you come into my show, we’re talking about capitalism, the have and have-nots. I’m trying to not only appeal to all of the senses, but also emotions.
The gummy bear for me is the universal symbol of childhood. Gummy bears are my everyman. You can see a benign creature here—the same eyes, smile—but when you scratch the surface they are all very different.
It’s not a very palpable show, and things are going to be a little off kilter. I’m taking a proverbial mirror and saying don’t blame me for the way this show is and the way society is. Blame yourself because it is up to all of us to contribute and go in a positive manner.
I didn’t want to play ball with a gallery, because how can you give the middle finger to society and capitalism, and how capitalism and money and greed have become our god as opposed to our “gods” and how can I do that when I’m having a show in a chichi gallery. So my response to that is to have it in a warehouse and build my own show and built the framework around that.
The key to my show is to find and unleash the inner child of each individual, to feel pure and unfiltered and not even know about the outside world, just know about this beautiful world that they’re in at that particular moment. Now I can’t even remember anything like that because of all the things I have to process, just going through a day of life—I have to process a beheading. / Nov. 15; free, Golden Ticket required –Lynn Norusis
This interview has been edited and condensed.
(November 2014)
