Link to images from the exhibition

Imagine a meeting of Popeye, Frida Kahlo, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Andy Warhol. Sound impossible? Look for the gathering of these sculpted personalities at Platform Gallery beginning February 17 in Scott Fife's exhibit I Am What I Am.

On the heels of his mid-career survey at the Tacoma Art Museum, Scott has chosen to pare down to the essence of four distinct personalities for the more intimate setting of a gallery. For this exhibit, Scott has sculpted busts of Popeye, Kahlo, Mies van der Rohe, and Warhol, each icons in their own right and as a grouping a broad cultural representation of what it means to be "as you are" with all the attendant costs and benefits. Whether a public or a private persona, fictional or non-fictional, each individual struggled and succeeded in being an authentic self while living more than their "15 minutes of fame."

Sculpted larger than life in cool grey archival cardboard and assembled with screws and carpenter's glue, Fife utilizes his architechtural understanding of form and his aesthetic as a fine artist to build up a likeness that is undeniable yet not simply a objective representation. Scott captures a sense of strength as well as weakness in the individuality of each of these subjects.

Video: "The Making of Lionel Hampton": Link
Interview: with Carol Bolt, 2004: Link