NADA Miami 2022

On Friday afternoon, Miami-native A.G. will read excerpts from their latest publication, “Intermission”, to Kevin Dudley’s “pad-Kinkade-chimera”, ‘All Domestic’.

“INTERMISSION” is a series of short-form texts by A.G. that began as a weekly column during the pandemic, mailed via USPS— presented here as a self-published First Volume collection.

Grounded in nostalgia, the appropriated format of the printed newspaper presents a theater of validation; an object of legitimacy and trust. Each column offers an analytical query into a distinct yet universal topic— contributing practical ideas and solutions, based in a philosophical approach to theatrical training and production tradecraft.

‘All Domestic’ is a recent sculpture by Kevin Dudley. In 2014, Rick Silanskas, of the DreamVision Company, announced DreamVision Dreamscape Mountain - an amusement park/live music venue/production studio/resort/multi-billion dollar boondoggle - to be constructed in Fort Worth, Texas. The centerpiece of this project would be a giant man made mountain that would contain an artificial snow park in partnership with the Thomas Kinkade Company (the man himself having passed by this point.) This whole thing would go bust, having never even broken ground, when the money man behind it all was sentenced to prison for fraud in 2018.

Look at Thomas Kinkade’s paintings: there’s a lot of nature but not a lot of nature. People rarely figure into his landscapes, but, surprising, few animals as well. And the animals that do are domestic, docile - mostly dogs, few cats, some deer, swans, ducks, and nary a coyote, raccoon, or wolf in sight. Fitting for a man who strived to only see the good things in life.

Upon “taking control” of the DreamVision Company, Dudley’s own endeavour has been to expand and extend the story of this doomed family entertainment enterprise. What he has made is a combination of Kinkade’s animals as a kind of nonaggressive chimera, to serve as one of many IPs he hopes to institute. Printed on heavy vinyl, backed on a non-woven moving blanket, and stuffed, the piece he has contributed to the fair is like an oversized merch-prototype, with allusion to use and utility through material. Like the fake mountain at the center of the park, he attempts to foreground an idyllic view of “nature” over the effort to make that happen, maybe difficult, maybe impossible.