Art Vandelay: A Show about Nothing

ART VANDELAY: A show about nothing.

Shows at Arthive until June 18th.

Elaine Benes and her undeniably maniacal personality, expressed perfectly by her fuzzed hair. George Costanza and his propensity to be the most irritable, cheapest, incompetent bald guy in New York. Frank Costanza and his enraged hand gestures and ill-tempered tones. And Kramer with his unlikely fads and impossible ideas. Seinfeld fans worked hard and brought together a show which essentially is about Seinfeld, but in turn reveals it is really about nothing…

Art Vandelay: A Seinfeld themed group exhibition, opened at Arthive on Friday the 27th of May. Jessica Louttit curated this little beauty, and a hand full of devoted Seinfeld lovers created the work for it.
Arthive became a bustling domain on opening night, with off the hook references, an indoor cinema showing reruns of the golden episodes and enough Seinfeld themed food for an entire retrospective film based on…Seinfeld food! There were muffin tops, junior mints and Adam Clough even brought along some soup. “No soup for YOU!”

Chris Bradley painted Adolf’s Kitchen in response to one of the most acclaimed episodes ever written; “The Soup Nazi”. It made me want to watch the episode whilst eating soup, whilst being a little bit scared. “You want bread?! Three dollars!”

Bryce Collins combined his love for all things tattoo and created a series of little copic marker drawings using witty symbols and a graphic quality. Making references to “The Summer of George”, “A Festivus for the Rest of Us” and of course “The Soup Nazi”, Collins work was simple and fun. And considering it was a whole lot of art about nothing, he managed to pull it off.
Frank: “George, Festivus is your heritage, it’s a part of who you are.”
George: “That’s why I hate it…”

 Jessica Louttit’s stuffed Seinfeld characters were a popular hit for the night, complete with Kramer’s permed bangs, George’s tubby tummy and a little pretzel with a face, these guys would blend well with all of your favourite plush toys at home…or would they? “These pretzels…are making me thirsty!!!”

Once again, Newman looked ominous, obese and down right filthy in a work created by Grant Hunter. Originally it was a smaller drawing which Hunter had blown up; playing with the scale, making Newman look just that little bit more pig like. I cried a little bit because just like in the show, this drawing of Newman scared the willies outta’ me! “Hellooooo…Newman.”

Saddened that we cannot have endless Seinfeld shows, but gladdened because Arthive will soon feature more themed group exhibitions…Art Vandelay made me laugh…(just like in the episode where Elaine reveals her radical dance to an entire party)…it made me cringe (with embarrassment for George when he claims he is the architect Art Vandelay, who builds railroads)…and sigh with admiration (when I finish watching six episodes in one sitting and realise how talented Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are for creating such a successful show about nothing.

Written by Emily Mitchell.
Photos by Angus Arley.