Davin Watne
Davin Watne has been a constant figure in the contemporary art scene in Kansas City since he and Leo Esquivel opened the Dirt Gallery in the mid-1990s. The Dirt Gallery closed in 2003 after eight years in the West Bottoms, but many of the performances and exhibitions there helped provide a focus for young artists in Kansas City. Throughout the years, Watne’s interests have extended beyond visual art into the worlds of music, fashion, advertising, and cars. A recent series of silkscreen prints that graphically combine animals and vehicles in crash sites provides an excellent opportunity to see Watne at his best, blending irony, violent upheaval, and wit. Like these prints, much of Watne’s work incorporates or references a motor vehicle of some sort: from the memorable pink Dodge Charger piñata to his recent public art commissions, Watne is literally on a roll.
Watne’s interest in piñata-like, papiermâché pieces dates to 2002 when he made Gently (a full-size, tricked-out 1974 pink Dodge Charger) specifically for the Charlotte Street Awards exhibition that year. At the exhibition opening, Watne smashed the front corner of the car, spilling candy on the gallery floor. Watne later used Gently in an even more destructive performance when he set the paper car on fire as part of the 2004 Mardi Gras festivities in the East Crossroads.
Watne’s current interest in smaller scale papier-mâché sculpture still carries the enjoyment of angst-ridden humor. New pieces combine two birds in a choreographed fight scene where one bird clearly dominates. Viewers may bring their own issues to this power struggle played out in the simple colors of black and white. Similar to his silkscreens clearly exalting the traditionally weak animal as the victor, Watne has returned his focus to the colliding worlds of Man versus Nature. Watne gives strength to Nature and empowers it to fight its own battles—a battle in which he seems to be rooting for Nature every time. Mankind is left to sort through the rubble.
—Mark J. Spencer
