Grand Arts: Fat of the Land

IMAGINATION: Lynus Young
Lynus Young’s interpretation of the phrase “the fat of the land” provides a succinct verbal equivalent to his visual artwork, “It is biblical. I think of it in a Kansas City way. Kansas City strip steak. Living on baby fat. Where does the baby fat come from? Fat means money. Fat means abundance. Fat means America. Kansas City is the second fattest city in the U.S. What does the land offer? Is the land still fat or are we just fat?”⁷

These sentences rush from one glittering thought to the next. Images seem to spew from Young’s imagination. The abundance and range of his mental output raises two intriguing questions related to affluence:

- Is there a limit to the productive capacity of the human imagination?
- Can there be too much imaginative plenty?

These questions establish the context for the visually opulent artworks Young is creating for the Grand Arts exhibition. His description of them inspired another exuberant accounting. The following paragraphs relate his evocative description to imaginative plenty.

“The mirage is created through fine carved lines in a reflective surface.”⁸ Young’s drawings are etched or sand-blasted around stencils placed on colored glass and mirrors of different dimensions, shapes, and systems of support. He explains his choice of medium by stating, “Layers of glass are trains of thought.”⁹

“These primitive holograms are based on a collected history, which is random and pure chance.” Instead of documenting Kansas City history, Young creates swirling assemblages of the region’s mythos, geography, native populations, immigrant populations, industries, and business leaders, and even includes the experience of driving down Main Street. Young admits, “It’s dreamy to me. It’s a voyage. I don’t know what I’m getting in to when I start a piece…I want people to enter, to dig through the labyrinth.”.¹⁰

“…a collected history, which is random and pure chance like shuffling through a tarot deck. I am seeking a treasure or disaster. History is laced with both, a shifting puzzle face of a person trying to find its form.” Young’s exuberant formulations also encompass an ancient system of Tarot cards for divining the future. Instead of adopting traditional symbols, Young invents his own, suggesting that a spiritual force or the collective unconscious may be guiding his creativity.

Young admits, “I’m infatuated with my imagination.” He utilizes it to discover, “How far can I push the visual language?” The answer lies imbedded in these exhilarating works of art where the visual language is pushed to the brink of a hallucinatory state.




From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions WEALTH: Filip Noterdaeme (HoMu) POWER: Adam Zaretsky with Katherine Wright, Travis Watson, and Chase Pierson POTENTIAL: Spurse LUXURY: Fritz Haeg IMAGINATION: Lynus Young WASTE: Tavares Strachan COMMUNION: Micaela O’Herlihy
IMAGINATION: Lynus Young Lynus Young’s interpretation of the phrase “the fat of the land” provides a succinct verbal equivalent to his visual artwork, “It is biblical. I think of it in a Kansas City way. Kansas City strip steak. Living on baby fat. Where does the baby fat come from? Fat means money. Fat means abundance. Fat means America. Kansas City is the second fattest city in the U.S. What does the land offer? Is the land still fat or are we just fat?”⁷ These sentences rush from one glittering thought to the next. Images seem to spew from Young’s imagination. The abundance and range of his mental output raises two intriguing questions related to affluence: - Is there a limit to the productive capacity of the human imagination? - Can there be too much imaginative plenty? These questions establish the context for the visually opulent artworks Young is creating for the Grand Arts exhibition. His description of them inspired another exuberant accounting. The following paragraphs relate his evocative description to imaginative plenty. “The mirage is created through fine carved lines in a reflective surface.”⁸ Young’s drawings are etched or sand-blasted around stencils placed on colored glass and mirrors of different dimensions, shapes, and systems of support. He explains his choice of medium by stating, “Layers of glass are trains of thought.”⁹ “These primitive holograms are based on a collected history, which is random and pure chance.” Instead of documenting Kansas City history, Young creates swirling assemblages of the region’s mythos, geography, native populations, immigrant populations, industries, and business leaders, and even includes the experience of driving down Main Street. Young admits, “It’s dreamy to me. It’s a voyage. I don’t know what I’m getting in to when I start a piece…I want people to enter, to dig through the labyrinth.”.¹⁰ “…a collected history, which is random and pure chance like shuffling through a tarot deck. I am seeking a treasure or disaster. History is laced with both, a shifting puzzle face of a person trying to find its form.” Young’s exuberant formulations also encompass an ancient system of Tarot cards for divining the future. Instead of adopting traditional symbols, Young invents his own, suggesting that a spiritual force or the collective unconscious may be guiding his creativity. Young admits, “I’m infatuated with my imagination.” He utilizes it to discover, “How far can I push the visual language?” The answer lies imbedded in these exhilarating works of art where the visual language is pushed to the brink of a hallucinatory state.	Lynus Young "Harry Bush Queen" detail from In the Lurch at Holographic History Camp Etched glass 2007
----------------------------- ⁷Lynus Young, telephone interview with the author, (8 May 2007). ⁸Lynus Young, e-mail correspondence with the author, (12 May 2007).span> ⁹Lynus Young, telephone interview with the author, (8 May 2007). ¹⁰Lynus Young, e-mail correspondence with the author, (12 May 2007).
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