Whether it's nostalgia or insanity, that dusty toy riding horse calls to be played with despite how much you've outgrown it.
David Mitchell's exhibit "A Boy Named Noname" is a one-channel video installation with sound accompanied by matching charcoal sketches. It's showing in CEPA's basement gallery through June 3.
A large black bench that sits a few feet in front of a seven-foot screen, which shows a boy sprawled out in the grass. The film that follows is seven minutes and 20 seconds of strange monotony. A boy, maybe 16 years old, is fully dressed in a cowboy costume riding on a child's toy horse, similar to a home movie.
The scene continues like this until he is suddenly walking down a street with a toy gun slung over his shoulder. The street is modern and he looks out of place.
Viewer Max Mallighan, a self-described sportsman, was amused and perplexed by the film.
"It's about a kid whose imagination ran away with him," Mallighan says. "He is a big kid. Maybe his parents took too much acid."
The boy is too old to be playing cowboy and it is unclear what the message is. Is it a statement about lost youth? Is it an understatement about forgotten purpose? Could it just be about childhood memories?
"There is a subliminal message somewhere here, but it is still too early for me," Mallighan says. "It makes us think of our childhood. We were the sheriff of our own town."
"I liked the pictures on the wall better than the film," said business owner Karen Walters.
The images on the wall are beautiful charcoal drawings of the boy, horses, guns, and a gigantic sheriff's badge. They are simple line drawings that capture a great amount of detail without being busy.
Mitchell ends the movie with the boy taking aim with the toy gun followed by a montage of men getting shot from various westerns. The piece ends the same way it begins, with the boy spread out on the ground. However, the toy gun is dropped next to his head, as if he had shot himself.
The soundtrack is a mix of noises and western-like melodies that are continuously interrupted by the sound of dueling banjos coming from DeTrinis' exhibit.
"A Boy Named Noname" is unusual and unexpected. The film seems to fit in with the other exhibits at the CEPA Gallery, making the experience remarkable.
The sound from Rachel DeTrinis' "A Flood Line" clashes with the audio of "A Boy Named Noname." DeTrinis is the other artist featured in CEPA's basement gallery and her exhibit is a three-channel video installation with sound.
CEPA is located at 617 Main St. and is open from Monday through Friday 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Saturday 12:00 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
