Mann Made Art

by Eileen Weber

The Bruce S. Kershner Gallery at the Fairfield Public Library is showing an environmental art display called “Re/Art/Cycle.” The focus is on two artists, Jeff Mann and Lynn Stephens Massey.

While Massey’s paintings used paper bags as the backdrop, Mann’s sculpture display was just a bit different. With structure and color as the main focus for these pieces, you see the art at first and not the medium. But most of the materials came from junked cars.

Mann, who currently lives in Watertown, ME, has some strong feelings about the auto industry. “I find it inherently weird that eleven million cars per year are disposed of,” he said. “It’s a colossal waste.”

On his web site, he describes his work as “reconstructing the car” in a more benign way from what he calls a malignant, “Frankensteinian monster.” “I don’t make ugly pieces to reflect the evils of the car,” he says, “but rather celebrate the incredible beauty of car parts and their complexity.”

In 2004, Mann became the artist in residence at Southern Maine Community College. As part of an advertising project, he started gutting an old van. It was then that he realized how beautiful each metal piece could be.

He said his art is a way for a people to appreciate what went into making a car. If art is a sort of dance, then let the cars do a little cha-cha. Materials like glass, metal, and plastic are gathered together to make what he says is “an incredible machine.” Then when it is no longer of use, it just gets thrown away.

Typically, he gets his materials from local transmission shops, repurposing the material to incorporate it into his sculpture. One of his more frequently highlighted pieces is his work entitled “Meteor.” Entirely made from clutches, he paints a scene of a meteor entering the Earth’s surface. Of his work, he said, “It’s what’s behind it that’s more important.”

Mann believes we should strive to live without cars as much as possible. While he believes it’s unreasonable to expect a “carless” society, we should be smart about our town planning so that walking, biking, and mass transportation are more readily available to commuters as a more common way of life.

He and his wife, whom he ran a pottery business with until 1998, also plan to move to Kingston, Ontario in Canada. Kingston is a bigger city and has better transportation than his rural town in Maine. In northern New England, he still needs a car to get around. In Kingston, he can ditch the little bugger and start living without the carbon emissions belching from his trusty sedan.

But even though he plans to live a car-free life, he realizes it’s just a drop in the bucket. “We’re lacking the overall picture here. One person’s action is not enough to make an impact,” he said. “We just need way, way fewer cars.”

Mann may see the car as evil. But he also views it as complex and mechanically fascinating. But he doesn’t let other metal objects go to waste, either. He has used old lawn mower and chain saw parts as well as metal roofing.

In his “Roadkill” series, exaggerated tire tread patterns cover this three-part sculpture. A frog and coyote never get to cross the road. Unfortunately, neither does a man in his “Roadkill—Homicide” piece. His work is as much expressionistic as it is environmentalist with a political twist.

The number of people who are killed by cars each year disturbs Mann. Statistically, twice as many people are killed as a result of vehicular homicide than any other form of homicide. Whether it’s road rage, drunk driving, or hit and run, the car can be a deadly weapon.

And to the environment, a car is just as deadly. With greenhouse gas levels affecting “our air, our water, and our planet,” as Mann puts it on his web site, a car can be just as dangerous sitting idle in a parking lot.

He chooses to offset the “evil” by channeling each piece’s intrinsic beauty into something else. Steel car parts may just be steel car parts on your mechanic’s floor. But for Mann, they morph into a thing of beauty that has a contemporary and meaningful statement.

“I’m putting out a stronger message,” he said. “But I like to let people see the work first, then give the message.”

The exhibit opened on October 11th and runs until November 29th.