Snake America: Earth 18
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DOLL: Disney 1930s Knickerbocker doll -- only appropriate with The Knicks' season about to begin: a grotesequely-naked Mouse of dubious import flexing. Here's what's going on:
Mickey is stout, like a coal miner or whatever football players looked like in the 1930s. He resembles a young Ernest Borgnine, except is a mouse.
His shoes are orange here--Mickey almost never wore orange shoes. This is kind of like the light blue shirt Bart Simpson wore on his Bart Simpson shirts -- it's different*.
He is making a thing with his hands and either appealing for clemency after doing something terrible. e.g., throwing a half-peeled potato at a bully captain, knocking out of a steamboat, or for me or you to understand that he represents quick death.
The lower lines of the cutout triangles in his eyes form the base of a perfect isosceles triangle with the top lines of his cutout eyes. It's one of a handful of perfect shapes on the item in question.
Here is a nice appraisal of the Mickey, on Antiques Roadshow.
All in all, hard to think of a better way to spend $100 that doesn't involve airfare, dinner or an index fund. No discussion of Disneyana and Mickey Mouse touches on this item and it should.
ART: Coffin in the Form of a Nike Sneaker (by Paa Joe): Went to the Brooklyn Museum last weekend, about which--go see the visible storage for period-era Eames furniture--look, I don't want to bury the lede here. I have questions.
1. How was this coffin resembling a sneaker made in 1990? The sneaker it resembles is an Air Max 95.
(For anyone who's not up on the shorthand, I'll explain. The Air Max is Nike's running shoe standard. The first model was releasedin 1987 (Air Max 1) and the Air Max has been updated more or less yearly since. Like Corvettes, they get regular design overhauls. The 1990 model--the Air Max 90--looks much different than the 1995 model. The 1995 model looks almost exactly like the coffin statue above; the 90 does not.)
Am I misreading the date on this? Or misreading something else? Who's wrong? Here are a couple theories I have.
a. Paa Joe, the celebrated Ghanaian coffin artist, designed the above in 1990, with incredible foresight, imagining a sneaker that had not yet been drawn out or modeled. The credited designer on the Air Max 95, Sergio Lozano, seen below, did not, as mentioned in press clippings, lay out the sneaker as tribute to the backbone and/or circulatory system (Complex says "human body," which is correct). In this version of events, Lozano ripped off Joe and shared the credit and blame with Nike. This is unrealistic since Joe's other product pieces, like this Nokia phone, or this Benz, are, if anything, backwards- and not forward-looking. Also, it looks like a bootleg Air Max 95 and not a real one. This guide sort of explains that.
This above is the best pic of Lozano. I mean, I'm not sure it's him. But he looks Italian, and he's definitely designing (check out the stuff on the wall).
b. Sergio Lozano doesn't exist. Nike made up the name and story as hagiographic short-hand to trick sneakerheads. Maybe Nike wrote a check to Joe In wrestling they call it kayfabe. This theory isn't realistic and doesn't explain the coffin art but is pretty funny.
c. Something to do with Eric Clapton's Air Max 95 jet. Clapton, you'll remember, painted his jet this color. It would be funny if he had a Cessna or on Flyer 1 or something. If you know anything about planes, please help: Was this jet a 1990?
d. Someone at the museum is wrong. I emailed them but haven't heard back. On the website, it says the "Credit Line" was from Lynne and Robert Rubin--not the former treasury secretary, smh--in honor of William C. Siegmann, the museum's deceased curator. I don't know what that means.
e. I am stupid and don't understand art.
Anyways, there is definitely something here. 1990 was a big year for Air Maxes. When I saw the statue and the date I carried on for five full minutes. At the risk of getting ahead of myself, this is a damn Air Max 95. The date is wrong. I like the idea of Joe designing the sneaker as a coffin and then Lozano, or someone else at Nike, somehow finding it and taking credit. But I'm willing to bet $5 that's not the case. If I'm wrong, (and I'm not being sarcastic or cute here when I say I hope I am), then Joe is the most important artist since Peter Max.
More on this as it develops. I plan on covering this like Harrison Salisbury did Vietnam.
Thanks for reading. Questions and errors can be replied to me. Tell your friends to sign up to this newsletter--it's better on email.
Snake
* I remember reading somewhere that Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon drew the blue-shirt Bart but I can't find any online confirmation.