Spring Break
Artist creates funhouse on campus
Jessie Burche
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: Culture
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Jaqwan Sirls' exhibit "Carnival" opened Friday at the UMKC African American History and Culture House. Sirls is the co-owner, founder and designer of Happy Rhino Clothing. He is attending Rockhurst University, majoring in English with a minor in theatre.
In the short time Sirls has been alive he has created many strange pieces which make the viewer wonder about what this guy dreams.
Sirls told me about one of his childhood dreams.
"I wanted to take over Disney World," he said.
He spoke excitedly about his dreams to completely take over the most famous theme park in America and draw really cool cartoons all the time.
"I was a big cartoon junky," Sirls said.
Who wasn't a cartoon junky as a kid?
At the exhibit I heard the "Doug" theme song and smiled at the recollections of my favorite childhood TV show.
Then I found myself face-to-face with a piece showing two chickens beating up the Easter bunny. My brain almost exploded.
Sirls giggled while talking about "Death to the Easter Bunny." Easter was one of the holidays that made him think as a child. He got the inspiration for the piece by thinking from the chickens' point of view.
"What if the chickens were like, 'Hey man! Give me back my eggs!'" Sirls said.
"Death to the Easter Bunny" aside, Sirls has a wide range of tone to his work. He goes from creepy to cute to aliens all in one exhibit. The pieces meander all over the Culture House Gallery and are set on fun materials like caution tape and orange construction mesh.
"It [setting up the exhibit] was really organic," Sirls said. "People really want to see things that don't make sense. If it doesn't make sense you stay there and keep looking at it."
One piece of interest to every woman alive was called "The Complicated Woman." The title alone made me smile. It has words like "manipulate" and "controlling" spelled out around a busy swirl of purple splashes and bees trailing yellow swirls.
Sirls has many series. The best was a six part series called "Fantoria." This is also his favorite series.
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