For those who haven’t seen the Duct Works: Shapes in Tape exhibit at Gallery 22 in downtown Delaware, Saturday is the last chance to see it at the 22 E. Winter St. location next to the Strand Theatre.
The exhibit, which will be open from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, features local duct tape artist Diane Hodges (Gallery 22 exhibit coordinator and Art Castle executive director), John and Phyllis Catania, of Delaware, and Jake Brinkmann from Cincinnati. All of the artists’ works are a mixed medium of wood, wire, plexiglass and mainly duct tape.
“We have had a huge response to this exhibit which opened on July 6,” Hodges said. “Every time we open the door, people come in.”
Hodges said her work with the medium is wireframe sculptures covered in duct tape to create animals. She said the diversity in colors the tape now comes in has really helped make it an art form.
A large part of the draw for people coming through the door is the cannon that can be seen when peering through the front window of Gallery 22. The piece, created by Brinkmann, is constructed out of wood with a skin of brown and black duct tape.
According to Hodges, Brinkmann had a steel cannonball made that is supposed to sit next to the piece, but she found people like to pick it up. She said it was taken out of the exhibit so it doesn’t get dropped on a foot.
“It’s definitely one of a kind,” she said.
Brinkmann’s other pieces include black and white duct tape images of Darth Vader and a stormtrooper from Star Wars, and red, white and blue images of John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Abe Lincoln. The images at a distance look like lithographic posters or even Andy Warhol silkscreen prints until a closer inspection reveals they are created from duct tape.
“Small cuts of tape is all it is,” he said.
Brinkmann said five years ago as a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati he met a professor who taught a class called 3-D Duct Tape Studio. He said that’s where he got his start in the medium.
However, he doesn’t do his art full-time yet.
“If I quit all my jobs, it would take work, but I could make a buck or two from it,” he said.
According to Hodges, John and Phyllis Catania are a married couple who create poster-like images of athletic events at the Arnold in Columbus each year.
