The Freak Family Roadshow is a traveling sculptural art installation of a gorilla mother, an alien father and their strange love child, cruising the backroads of America, trapped in an eternal time loop, confined to a canned-ham-style vintage 50s era trailer. Outside there is a lurid sideshow banner and an animatronic paper mâché carnival barker promising an experience “that will make you grateful for your normal life.” Inside features an ordinary day-in-the-life scene of a family, with the child’s toys littering the floor, tchotchkes adorning the shelves and tender photos and art hanging on the walls, while pleasant tunes from the 50s play over the radio. The exhibit mythologizes aspects of artist Jo Cunningham’s own family. The art on the walls was made by her when she was a little girl and the baby’s school photo features Jo’s now deceased grandmother and uncle. Jo’s mother, a primatologist, and her artist father, who incorporates UFO and conspiracy theory into his artwork, are also reflected in the characters, with the installation inspired by the underground comics her farther wrote in the 80s, particularly Alien Metaphor which ran in Heavy Metal Magazine. The caged guinea pigs and newspaper clippings about Laika the dog, the first creature to orbit the earth, hint at the broader exploitation of animals. Jo used a combination of newspaper, tin foil, duct tape, bits of trash, paper mâché, welded wire and encaustic wax to create the characters, with the gorilla’s skin made from tire inner tubes and her hair from alpaca fiber sourced from a farm in New Mexico. This freaky family and Jo are currently on a cross-country odyssey through America, bringing wonder, confusion, shock and delight to a diverse, far-reaching and often unexpected audience. Before landing in Los Angeles for a group exhibition in November, Jo and the fam will be making a pit stop in Colorado with October pop-ups in Fort Collins, Denver and more. THE FREAK FAMILY ROADSHOW TOUR: *KEEP UP-TO-DATE WITH THE ARTIST & MORE POP-UPS NEAR YOU* THEFREAKFAMILY.COM • INSTAGRAM: @THE_FREAKFAMILY THE NEIGHBOR - MEMBERS MIXER WEDNESDAY, 10/8 • FORT COLLINS, CO THE LYRIC - MEMBERS MIXER THURSDAY, 10/9 • FORT COLLINS, CO THE LEARNED LEMUR - SIDESHOW FESTIVAL SATURDAY, 10/11 • DENVER, CO MILE HIGH COMICS - POP-UP SUNDAY, 10/12 • 11AM-5PM • DENVER, CO LA LUZ DE JESUS GALLERY - MEMENTO MEMORIUM VULTURE CULTURE GROUP EXHIBITION • LOS ANGELES, CA OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, 11/7 • 7-11PM • EXHIBITION: 11/7-11/30 31
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