Kyle Beal's Funtown Pictures

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see Kyle Beal's Funtown at the Art Gallery of Alberta. It is a set of six charcoal drawings on paper, each showing the Funtown Disaster of 2013 at a different angle. If the phrase "Funtown Disaster" sounds horribly ironic, it shouldn't come as a surprise that irony was a large part of Beal's goal in drawing the pictures. Adding to the irony is that Funtown, after surviving Hurricane Sandy in 2012, fell victim to an electrical fire. Is there further irony in that an electrical fire is about the last fire a hurricane would be useful for putting out? How far this can go down the rabbit hole is anyone's guess.

I took a picture of the list of drawings:

The drawings look like photographs from far enough away. They're really quite remarkable, and are among the best recently made visual art I've seen, Not that that's a huge category, mind you...

I'd fully encourage anyone interested in current art, the tearing down of society, or artistic commentary on the news to check this out. More information is available on the AGA link I posted at the top. Bruce Springsteen fandom optional - for all my love of music, "Badlands" is pretty much the only Boss song I truly love.

Here's "Electrical Fire Extravaganza", courtesy of the Edmonton Journal: