TOYS FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
EXHIBIT AND CONCERT AT THE MAIN STREET MUSEUM
DECEMBER 5, 2008 THROUGH MARCH 2, 2009
PARALLEL UNIVERSE TOYS—There is another world, parallel to the one we recognize as real. In this universe JFK wasn’t killed and RFK became president for two terms. MLK was his Secretary of State. McGovern won the next two elections for president. This world embraced the imaginative culture of the 1960’s. (Note: it is the 40th anniversary of 1968 and a special month-long holiday is being celebrated). The Beatles are still alive and continue to make astonishing music which is the underlying creative engine for a global movement of parapsychedelic music and art. Politicians embraced the philosophy of the Whole Earth Catalog and adopted and enforced Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
These toys are from that universe.
PLAY—It’s about play. The toys are combined using imagination, fantasy and joy. As a child lines up dolls and builds and colors—it brings immense happiness. Children get lost in this world. The ground, the carpet, the lawn, the bed sheets become huge worlds where anything can happen. It feels very safe. Adolescence brings confusion—the bridge to adulthood where the struggles of trust, responsibility, protecting what you have, procreation and career take up so much energy.
THE CANDY STORE IN BROOKLYN—When I was very young, my grandfather had a candy store in Brooklyn. I remember the candy counter and I remember the toy section in the back. The toy area wasn’t well lit and there were lots of shelves that went straight up to the ceiling so you needed a rolling ladder to see what was up there; candy, toys and the endless tunnel leading up to more discoveries.