EXPLOITS: “Infinite Monkeys” – The Trunk Space 8th Anniversary Show

Michele Bledsoe “Lavinia” acrylic on canvas 10″ x 8″

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Today, May 7, will be the end of an era, as treasured Phoenix multimedia venue The Trunk Space leaves their current location after 12 years-a mighty run for an independent art space.

So many wonderful memories were created there. The first piece of art they ever sold, on their opening night in 2004, was one of my paintings:

Richard Bledsoe “Rookery” oil on wood panel 24″ x 24″

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The Trunk Space hosted one of the exhibits I’m most proud of: 2014’s International Stuckists: Explorers and Inventors.  We displayed works from artists from 6 countries in downtown Phoenix, cutting edge pieces that challenged the dreary conformity of the contemporary art market. Other highlights included 2015’s Booked: Contemporary Literary Art and 2016’s Spineless: Invertebrate Art.

But thinking over the glorious labor of the love the Trunk Space has been all these years, I had a flashback to an earlier anniversary, all the way back to 2012.

My wife Michele Bledsoe and I received the following email on January 20, 2012:

Call for Artwork
Trunk Space 8 Year Anniversary Show

“Infinite Monkeys”
April-May 2012

In the 1913 article “Statistical Mechanics and Irreversibility” Émile Borel wrote “A million monkeys randomly hitting keys on a million typewriters, under the supervision of illiterate Editors, working hard ten hours a day. The Editors would gather these pages into bound volumes, and after a year these volumes would be found to contain an exact copy of the books of all kinds and of all languages stored in the richest libraries in the world.”

Of course, Borel wasn’t talking about literal monkeys, it was a clever metaphor for probability and randomness.

To put it another way, an infinite number of monkeys, typing on an infinite number of typewriters, for an infinite length of time would eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare.

What the heck am I talking about?
The number eight.
See if you can follow me here . . .
Trunk Space is 8 years old this April.
The number 8, on its side, closely resembles . . . the symbol for Infinity.

Which bring to mind that quote (often misquoted, it’s actually a saying that ‘evolved’ more then ‘happened’). Which brings me to mind our 8 year anniversary art show.

Please let us know if you would like to participate in “Infinite Monkeys [Infinite typewriters, infinite Shakespeare] (aka infinite Art)”.

Any new (previously unseen) artwork involving monkeys, typewriters, Shakespeare, infinity, any combination of, or otherwise inspired by that awesome quote is welcome.

 

Needless to say we both created art for this exciting installation. Michele was inspired to paint “Lavinia” (pictured above) after a character in Shakespeare’s most gruesome tragedy, Titus Andronicus. 

This piece added a beautiful example of the generous synchronicity of the universe, as in 2010 we had seen the band Titus Andronicus at the Trunk Space, while I was in an obsessive frenzy over their brilliant album The Monitor.

For my painting for “Infinite Monkeys,” I went a different route, and tried to pack a lot of chaos and references into a small canvas:

Richard Bledsoe “Globe of the Apes (London’s Burning Captures The Conscious of the King Kong)” 

acrylic on canvas 20″ x 16″

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Thanks to the vision of Stephanie Carrico and her team of super friends, I know the Trunk Space will continue, and evolve into evermore surprising forms. I’m looking forward to the next chapter in their ongoing adventures!

 

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