{"id":67067,"date":"2023-02-27T08:22:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T14:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=67067"},"modified":"2023-03-13T14:00:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T20:00:34","slug":"whats-steve-dayton-building-in-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/whats-steve-dayton-building-in-there\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Steve Dayton Building in There?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Dayton, “It Was on a Sunny Day and the Purple Dogs Were at It Again Cavorting Among Broken Buildings.” Mixed media, 7 x 15 1\/2 x 2 1\/2 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Tom Waits song comes to mind. \u201cWhat\u2019s he building in there \u2026 With that hook light in the stairs\/ What\u2019s he building in there?\u201d But it\u2019s not really right, the association. There\u2019s none of the foreboding of the Waits\u2019 song in Steve Dayton\u2019s works, now at Phillips Gallery. None of the threat we find in lines like, \u201cI\u2019ll tell you one thing\/He\u2019s not building a playhouse for the children.\u201d Dayton really is building a playhouse, of sorts; or, rather, several of them, and they\u2019re not just for the children.<\/h4>\n

The titles are something out of the Surrealists. \u201c<\/span>It Was on a Sunny Day and the Purple Dogs Were at It Again Cavorting Among Broken Buildings.\u201d <\/span>Though, with the Surrealists as well there was more than a touch of foreboding, especially among the Belgians. It\u2019s all light and fun for Dayton. Punny. \u201cThe Great and Spacious Shed of Damocles Hangs Over Nine Moist Triple Decker Slices of Cake in Assorted Flavors\u201d<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Steve Dayton, “It All Came Out in the End When the Committee Attempted to Sit For One of Their Short Bucket List Sessions”<\/p><\/div>\n

He calls his constructions \u201cabsurd realities.\u201d They are painted, carved-wood ensembles. Many are staged in a shadow box. Certain images, or items really, appear frequently enough to speak of a repertoire. There are paint cans: Dayton loves colors, especially \u201cexaggerated colors.\u201d Food and furniture are ubiquitous and often appear together: butter dripping on a chair is a motif that occurs more than once. Hands, often appearing from above, ring with an echo of Monty Python\u2019s hand of God.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

In a review of his show at Phillips two years ago, Ann Poore, touched on the biographical highlights<\/a>. Since 1989 the graphic designer has been in West Jordan, where we can imagine him tinkering in the garage: sawing, hammering, gluing, painting. When he emerges, after a hard day\u2019s work, in one of the Hawaiian\u00a0 <\/span>shirts he likes to wear, his neighbors might wonder, \u201cWhat\u2019s he building in there?\u201d<\/h4>\n

They can find out, through Mar. 11, at Phillips Gallery, though they when they leave, the still may be scratching their heads. Deciphering these works might be possible, though not necessarily preferable. In Dayton\u2019s case, we might heed Susan Sontag\u2019s advice, against interpretation, and just let them seep, like melted butter, into our consciousness. Just because the artist puts his works in a box doesn\u2019t mean we should.<\/h4>\n
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Detail from Steve Dayton’s “A Stack of Thin French Toast With Aside of Wheel Emerging From Subtle Obscurity”<\/p><\/div>\n

Steve Dayton<\/em>, Phillips Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through Mar. 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tom Waits song comes to mind. \u201cWhat\u2019s he building in there \u2026 With that hook light in the stairs\/ What\u2019s he building in there?\u201d But it\u2019s not really right, the association. There\u2019s none of the foreboding of the Waits\u2019 song in Steve Dayton\u2019s works, now at Phillips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/STDA108-It-All-Came-Out-in-the-End-when-the-Committee-Attempted-to-Sit-for-One-of-Their-Short-Bucket-List-Sessions-15x19x3.5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 01:44:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67085,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67067\/revisions\/67085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}