Brockton, Massachusetts
Steampunk can be described as a fantasy world at the intersection of Victorian history, science fiction, and advanced steam-powered technology. Fuller Craft Museum curator Beth McLaughlin and “Steampunk Guru”/artist Bruce Rosenbaum recently invited artists to be part of a “retro-future exhibition”—”New Sole of the Old Machine,” which used the tenets of steampunk to reimagine the city of Brockton by fusing a modern sensibility with industrial antiques. Participating sculptors were interested in objects not only as artifacts, but also as signifiers of other realities, both past and future. Brockton, known as Shoe City, is still re-discovering itself after a trajectory that led from its heyday in 1897, with 100 shoe companies, to 2009, when the last remaining company, FootJoy, closed its doors. In the first installation-Rosenbaum’s 14-foot-long, animated construction Shumachine-the inventor turns into his creation, his voice surprising visitors at unexpected intervals. …see the entire review in the print version of June’s Sculpture magazine.
