Sirls' favorite of the series was 'Fantoria.'

Artist creates funhouse on campus

By: Jessie Burche

Posted: 9/4/07

Friday I walked into a fully-lit funhouse. I was still fully creeped out.

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.

A dream sequence follows. Viewers meet Ed and Vladimir. The colors in the dream sequence are dark. It feels like you fell asleep and dreamt of finding a Byronic hero in a gothic mansion.

However, the twist comes at the end. It turns out the world of Fantoria is Vladimir's dream world. "Vladimir Victorious" shows Vladimir with flowing, white hair and a cape. He reminds me of Einstein.

"Vladimir is the me I wish I could have been, but I was told to shut up a lot," Sirls said. "I'm definitely different […] a lot of people don't understand."

Sirls' exhibition was enjoyable, but I thought it had some problems with fluidity. Many pieces had similar drawing styles and were easily linked back to the artist. However, the three drawings of aliens were way too out of place.

There was also a piece with two glass vases, one on top of the other. The top had a face painted on it and inside was a snake's shed skin (or something that looked like this). I had no idea what it was doing there.

Arzie Umali, program coordinator for African-American History and Culture House, found out about Sirls from an art professor at Rockhurst University.

"We like to find emerging artists who haven't hit the scene, but who are talented," Umali said.

She also commented on Sirls' copious works.

"When I met him last September, he just spread out all of these drawings on the floor," Umali said.

Tylena Martin, UMKC student, felt right at home in the exhibit.

"I feel like I could go back to being a kid without being judged," Martin said, displaying her Strawberry Shortcake folder. "I'm glad we could give him a chance [to show his art]."

"Carnival" will show through Nov. 2. The Culture House Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

jburche@unews.com