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    SERIOUS PLAY:
    The Work of MICHAEL BROLLY
    By Gail M. Brown

    Michael Brolly’s droll work is imbued with uninhibited personality. He de-mystifies formal art hierarchy and invites us to share in his play. He explores a self-styled world of popular references and visual puns. The sculpture and objects abound with highly spirited ideas and their very skilled realization. The works straddle the art/craft naming dilemma effortlessly. They seek his ideal viewer- one equally open to gutsy challenges, insouciance and the unexpected. And, one is not disappointed. We find ourselves easily wooed by the witty repartee and the surreal frolic. In the larger sphere of formal, staid, albeit beautiful, turned wood objects, this work is a serious opus dedicated to fun. At the least, unrestrainable smiles are evoked by his ingenuous audacity. We sense that he is playing with us, as well, and in all sincerity. Appreciating the irrepressible quality of the man and his work is a piece of cake.

    Fragile, curly legs bearing a pair of DANCING LIDDED CONTAINERS II, 1994, (mahogany, maple and cherry) begin to describe this devil-may-care storyteller. He takes the familiar and twists and turns it, no pun intended. The off balance, should-be-too-precarious gesture, graceful in mid-flight is a marker of self-created challenge. I sense an eternal adolescent pushing at boundaries, wanting to impress, but just ‘outside the box.’ He is a clever wizard entrancing all who are open to unrestrained imagination, to likeable but often politically incorrect humor and to irreverent, yet virtuoso exploration of the wood.

    He functions provocatively on the edges of the traditional turning community, imparting masterful proficiency as a maker who mixes techniques for very purposeful aesthetic and narrative ends. He has a clearly articulated visual vocabulary; it is quite evident that he found the appropriate material of choice and has made it his very personal own. And, he is an accessible communicator, sharing his abundant fun with figurative possibilities, as in A COUPLE OF BIRTHDAY SUITS, 2000, (mahogany and plastic pipes) and other referential visual anecdotes built on word play. He coyly taunts polite assumptions. He regales us with succeeding versions of his personal favorites among ideas and characters. The familiarity draws us further into his charming, sometimes deliberately naughty, world as in TOILET SEAT, 1977, (oak and walnut) and various breast shaped pull toys, rattles and yo-yos.

    Made individually over a decade, the altered baseball series, which toys with word images, continues to include new team players. The posturing aliens as elegant, futuristic repositories for small treasures add fantastic characters to their community. How enticing to imagine filling those well hidden, gliding drawers in THINKING OF MY MOTHER-IN-LAW MARIANNE AND THOSE MAGNIFICENT MAHOGANY BREASTS, 1996, (mahogany, maple, walnut, ebony, cherry, metal and suede) with deservedly uncommon jewels.

    Brolly makes the medium and the audience putty at his hands’ and heart’s behest. His works share consistently that wood can be lovingly turned, carved, joined and choreographed to plainly suit almost any of imagination’s challenges. He makes us forget that wood is a hard, unforgiving material. He artfully employs various favorites- woods, colors, grains and textures in well-considered balance, yet fashioning shapes and functional solutions of a most unexpected, irreverent nature. He adds mechanical spring devices to create unanticipated motion and action upon our personal investigation. The works are seen first as utilitarian subjects in the common vernacular, then altered perceptually by his wit and clearly sculptural intentions.

    They tempt and guarantee a conscious, aware usage: a gnarled, expressive three legged stool, LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES, 2001, (maple and walnut) invites a sitter and a story. A figurative CHESS SET, 2001, (bubinga, holly and glass) offers tactile experience: the modestly referenced ‘men’ will fit so well in a player’s hand. An exquisite, fairytale CRADLE, 2001, (mahogany, maple, rubber and sheepskin) for a little sprite promises very sweet dreams. All the forms are familiar by primary definition and intended purpose until Brolly addresses their unique design potential. Function and utility are then superceded by fantastic signatorial extravagance.

    The connection of craft to the viewer has long historic precedence; the inevitable continuum to usefulness and, therefore, to domesticity engages us intuitively. Personal body scale instinctively invites us to want to clasp, grasp and covet the spirited baseballs, shark bowls and most certainly to open and fill the lidded frogs. The latent child in each of us shares an appreciation for self-conscious playfulness and the unmistakable invitation to touch. Brolly’s formative years, the 1950’s, with its public interest in science fiction and his obvious love of ‘the national pastime’ connect him to a potentially responsive audience who shares the same nostalgia. (The number of objects in this Exhibition borrowed from his generous collectors bears this out.)

    All is not comic or fictional. In a rather surreal moment, OUR MOTHER HANGS IN THE BALANCE, 1992, (mahogany, walnut, holly and brass) offers a graceful, hovering bat delicately sipping nectar. Other works are minimal and equally seductive: a LECTURN, 1991, (ash and cherry) glides fluidly through space enticing us to become public speakers. DANCING TRYCLOPS, 1996, (oak and dyed veneer) a sleek, gesturing creature, and WE’RE OUTTA HERE, 1988, (mahogany and maple) a serenely simple covered vessel on legs, begin to take us back to his fictionalized world of prehistory and then forward to now familiar alien imagery. There are recurring allusions to the natural world and to the irony of certain human relationships, some of which overlap as in the crab-like pair MOTHER/DAUGHTER: HUNTER/PREY II, 1992, (mahogany, maple and bubinga) and in the witty SELF PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A VERY, VERY YOUNG MAN, 1997, (maple, holly and cherry) a microscopic cell- the fertilized egg. The titles work with clever purpose to engage us further in his visual wisecracks.

    With unrelenting whimsy, he addresses and redraws once prosaic imagery and cultural icons; he demystifies the formal presentation object and adapts characters in his own pop narrative. Michael Brolly, uninhibited sculptor-as-storyteller, thumbs his lathe at stuffiness. He lavishes warmth of personality, prowess and play instead.