InterAct's Writing Aloud - P.A.W. Print - Philadelphia Arts Writers

B-2 bombers and green painters' tape goddesses mingle with images of gravestones, phalli, and water. Crafted from a variety of tape, the installation is the work of the same fellow who hawks his hanger portraiture in the guise of his alter ego. Abraham Rothblatt is hiding his illustrious background as a welded sculptor, painter, a creator of inflatables, and a plaster and tape installation artist. His latest installation of tape and disposable materials graces the hallway entrance of the Highwire Gallery, which Rothblatt has christened, "Highwire Alley," in tape.

Rothblatt sums up his background in a few fractured words, "I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1940. My background is in oil painting and welded sculpture, but then I was Duchamped. I began taping walls in 1968. I came to Philadelphia in 1972 for a weekend and never left. I am now surviving by maintaining a secret identity as Jack Hangerbenderman. I am obsessed with the idea of making priceless linear imagery out of disposable materials."

Rothblatt who has exhibited his work at numerous venues, notably at the Jewish Museum of New York, the celebrated ArtPark in upstate New York, the Painted Bride (where his welded sculpture remains a permanent part of the architecture of the bicycle rack and in the café), private residences, the Rodriguez Library at 6th and Girard, and at the Jury Assembly Room (while on jury duty in Philadelphia City Hall, do check it out) as well as decorative iron work in railings, gates and window grates around the city.

In the current tape and disposable materials piece at the Highwire Gallery, one of Rothblatt's labels reads that the work is, "a cross between a Barnett Newman and a Shovel." The linear tape contains elusive references to the other artists exhibited within the show in the cooperative gallery. Rothblatt sculpts in tape the words, "Are you happy?" This is a reference to a video installation contained within the Highwire walls. Angles from the welded Highwire sign are mimicked in Rothblatt's linear motifs.

Rothblatt explains his fascination with the medium, "It's tape. Tape has its own world I suppose. It's not going to be there forever. The image is precious. You can keep the idea but not the material object. The tape is line in two dimensions, and the iron work and "hangerisms," [are] line in three dimensions. "

Rothblatt plays with organic and architectural elements. His piece contains numerous titles and text within, containing wordplay and Tromp L'oeil. On the wall across from the gallery entrance, a funerary stone appears with the words "OUR RESOLVE," as the gravenomer. The headstone continues in red tape to bleed and crack into the floor. The recurring text "Show \ Veil" and "Wit D" is a Duchamp joke, according to Rothblatt.

"It's a pun on The Shovel Show veil. The show is here, and the veil is blocked off," Rothblatt says. "A volume of space is blocking off the war. I repeat the images and play off of lines in my space. I would reference how minimal constructs affect real space. Also on another level, this terrible war is breaking, "OUR RESOLVE," as a country, hence the title. I like to draw the space so when you're in here, I objectify the space."

The installation begins with cautionary tape in the entryway next to the Vox Populi gallery. It continues and mimics the entryway to Vox by mirroring its entryway in a color-matched, reverse depiction on that gallery's rear door.

Rothblatt chuckles, "It's breaking all my own rules. This is the most I've ever gone crazy in a space. I swear there are folks in the galleries in the building who think I really am out of my mind. I'll be sitting here taping, talking out loud and laughing to myself."

"OUR RESOLVE," continues to be crippled in Rothblatt's imagery. His crippled and stubby phalli and elongated duct-taped toenails mingle with images of a tremendous feminine being, surrounded by images of war, emptiness, and destruction.

Rothblatt points to a figure, "Here is the goddess of Art with attendant nymphs. She's being attacked by planes-B2 bombers, everywhere. Essentially she is killing herself. The war is killing her.

In a sense, it's a map. You start out here with the sailboat in the Delaware River, move to Chesapeake Bay, down the coast to Florida, and then, here, you land in Iraq. Iraq is behind the wall. You can't see it. There are all sorts of jokes contained within, that really aren't funny."

The gleam in Rothblatt's eyes dulls momentarily and his giddy strut slows in seriousness, "How do we create such pretty things when such an awful thing is happening? There is a lot of social commentary here, references to graffiti. Tape allows me to do what you can't do in other mediums."

Rothblatt's work appeared at the Highwire Gallery as part of The Shovel Show, which closed May 31. The Highwire Gallery is located at 1315 Cherry Street. Abraham "Jack Hangerbenderman" Rothblatt can be contacted through the gallery's website www.highwired.tv or by phoning (215) 829-1255.