Some of the publicity material for artist Michael E. Long‘s new show simply calls his unusual work “a conversation starter.” Talk to the artist himself, and that conversation will drift anywhere from growing up around the world, to his vivid dreams, to Dadaism, and a lot more.
The conservation Long hopes his work will spark in viewers is an open-ended one.
“I don’t want to give too much away of my idea of the story,” he explained. “I want the viewer to come up with their own story of these pieces.”
Some Assembly Required, the artist’s second solo exhibit, is on display at Allan Hancock College’s Ann Foxworthy Gallery through April 18. The exhibit features a series of miniature scenes he calls Dream Boxes, which are made with vintage paper and handmade wood boxes. The pieces are a way for Long to capture images from nightmares and dreams he has experienced throughout his life and translate them to a visual medium. Long said the boxes represent a specific time and place, only existing in the mind.
While he was born in Santa Barbara, Long moved about 30 times between when he was 5 years old to the time he was 16. His nomadic lifestyle had him living in several different countries and states, which he said gave him a good picture of the world.
When he was 9, his parents worked in an antique store, an experience that made an indelible impression on him.
“I was enamored by Victorian art … things that are in dioramas or glassed-in environments,” Long said. “I loved the idea of making art that was kind of an homage to earlier work, with birds and taxidermy.”
Since 2012, Long has been in a dozen group shows that feature his uniquely constructed work. In 2018, he had two solo shows in Santa Barbara—You Are Here at Studio 111 Gallery, and View With a Room at Sol Hill Studio Gallery.
For his current exhibit, Some Assembly Required, the artist tapped into long-held memories and recurring dreams (and nightmares) from his eclectic past. Long said a lot of his work is influenced by his interest in Dadaism and surrealist art.
“A lot of these things are just from memory,” Long said. “I just really got into Dada art. A lot of it is based on nonsensical properties. It’s a little satirical and tongue in cheek.”
But while his work may include elements of surrealist humor, there are layers of meaning hidden underneath. Many of the boxes he created are based on nightmares and serve as a way for Long to deal with some of the haunting things he’s witnessed in them.
“These nightmarish themes I can cathartically make,” Long said. “And then all of a sudden, once I make them, they’re beautiful boxes. And they’re not scary anymore.”
Long said the work was inspired by certain experiences he would have called “vuja de,” his term for the opposite of deja vu. He said sometimes he would wake up in places and not immediately know where he was (possibly owing to having moved around so frequently). The boxes, which feature miniature recreations of rooms with prominent doors, were a way for the artist to recapture and analyze those moments.
Long’s boxes can feel almost dollhouse-like, albeit for a doll belonging to a child of Dracula or Frankenstein’s monster. Carefully constructed with found items such as wood, upholstery pins, lightbulbs, discarded children’s toys, and bits of vintage paper, Long’s tiny Dream Box world can upend a viewer’s expectations. As the artist invites the viewer into these rooms, always taunted by a mysterious door leading somewhere (Perhaps somewhere safer? Perhaps darker?), Long is sharing his own therapeutic attempt to purge these dark places from his mind. It’s a chilling yet enticing project that draws the viewer in with more questions and observations.
“It’s fascinating,” he said. “You put this out in a really kind of archaic, cryptic way. And then you let people voyeuristically look at these pieces and come up with their own conclusions. Sometimes it’s right on, and sometimes it’s really far off but in a really good way.”
Long said he was thankful for the opportunity to be showcased at the Foxworthy Gallery, one of only three venues in Santa Maria that houses public art. Having a chance for college students to seek art that is thought-provoking and inspirational makes the show a valuable one. Some of the students who’ve seen the work have approached the artist with questions about the unusual nature of his art.
“I think it’s great for young minds to see this,” Long said. “It did stimulate a conversation. It kind of pushes the boundaries for people … you’re exposed to this world of assemblage.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is boxed in. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2019.