Peer Review: Hootenanny on the Hill

“There’s a fish in the percolator!” 

Whenever someone asks me if I’ve ever seen Twin Peaks, I always recall that line. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s because the idea of fish-flavored coffee is so disgusting. Maybe it’s because the word "percolator" is so rarely used. Maybe I’m just weird. Let’s not dwell on it. 

Walking into The Living Room for the opening of his show, It is Happening Again, it became clear that Joey Veltkamp strongly associates a very different creature with Twin Peaks. Hoot! Hoot!

Read more after the jump.

“The owls are not what they seem.” 

Are Joey’s owls what they seem? Veltkamp (with help from guest artists Jeffry Mitchell, Matthew Offenbacher and Gretchen Bennett) has created several paper mache owls and one very large deer head.

The artist’s statement explains that the works “speak indirectly to the hipster taxidermy motifs on Capitol Hill, the passé trend of deer art (now supplanted  by the latest “it” animal – owls).”

But there’s nothing indirect about the relations of these owls to the taxidermy trend, in décor, on the Hill, and in hipster bars across the nation. Hung like a collection of trophies on a handful of high shelves, and installed proudly over the door of the bar, this parliament of owls clearly seeks to replace (or mock) typical trophy animals with crafty, cartoony and – in the case of the deer head – comically colossal iterations.

It’s great to see another space opening it's doors to locally made art in Capitol Hill, and to such success! Nearly all of the modestly priced works sold during the opening reception. Hoot!

It’s all Happing Again runs through August 31. Be sure to keep the Living Room on your radar. Curator Amanda Manitach already has artist Jason Hirata lined up for September, and Maggie Carson Romano for October.