Upcoming Shows at Cactus Gallery

P i n o c c h i o
Featured artist: Joe Alvarez
Scheduled to run: August 12 - September 2 
RECEPTION: Saturday, August 12 * 6p-9p

P i n o c c h i o will be exploring the important lessons learned during Pinocchio's misadventures. We will also get to meet the carnival of colorful characters that guided him to discover the true meaning of being human.

Donna Abbate, Joe Alvarez, Ulla Anobile, Denise Bledsoe, Andrea Bogdan, Lacey Bryant, Catherine Bursill Moore, Olivier Castillon, Nancy Cintron, Valency Genis, Annette Hassell, Patricia Krebs, Mavis Leahy, Malathip, Justine Mares, Jen Musatto, Janet Olenik, Jen Raven, Salvage Art Sweetheart, Carolina Seth and Joe Vollan.

BACKGROUND INFO:

Pinocchio was a wooden marionette and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a village near Florence, he was created as a wooden puppet but dreamed of becoming a real boy. The piece of wood from which he was created is animated, so Pinocchio moves independently.

Pinocchio's bad behavior, rather than being charming or endearing, is meant to serve as a warning. Collodi originally intended the story to be a tragedy. It concluded with the puppet’s execution. Pinocchio’s enemies, the Fox and the Cat, bind his arms, pass a noose around his throat, and hang him from the branch of an oak tree.

Pinocchio was basically good, but he often got carried away hanging around with bad company, though he always managed to get out. Pinocchio undergoes transformations during the novel: he promises The Fairy with Turquoise Hair to become a real boy, flees with Candlewick to the Land of Toys, becomes a donkey, joins a circus, and becomes a puppet again. In the last chapter, out of the mouth of The Terrible Dogfish with Geppetto, finally stops being a puppet and becomes a real boy.

Some literary analysts have described Pinocchio as an epic hero. Like many Western literary heroes, such as Odysseus, Pinocchio descends into hell; he also experiences rebirth through metamorphosis, a common motif in fantasy literature.

The structure of the story of Pinocchio follows that of the folk-tales of peasants who venture out into the world but are naively unprepared for what they find, and get into ridiculous situations. At the time of the writing of the book, this was a serious problem, arising partly from the industrialization of Italy, which led to a growing need for reliable labour in the cities; the problem was exacerbated by similar, more or less simultaneous, demands for labor in the industrialization of other countries. One major effect was the emigration of much of the Italian peasantry to cities and to foreign countries such as the United States.

The main imperatives demanded of Pinocchio are to work, be good, and study. And in the end Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father and devote himself to these things transforms him into a real boy with modern comforts.