Dash Shaw "Bottomless"
Curated by Diego Cortez
September 25 - October 31, 2008
Main Gallery, John Hope Franklin Center
Opening Reception, Thursday, September 25, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Main Gallery, John Hope Franklin Center
Artists Discussion: Dash Shaw and Gary Panter
Friday, September 26, Noon
240 Franklin Center
Bottomless Belly Button narrates six days in the lives of the fast-disintegrating Looney family. After 40-some years of marriage, Maggie and David Loony shock their children with their announcement of a planned divorce. But the reason for splitting isn't itself shocking: they're "just not in love any more." The announcement sparks a week-long Loony family reunion at Maggie and David's creepy (and possibly haunted) beach house.
In this six-day period visually rich with atmospheric sequences, the characters stumble blindly around one another, often ignoring their surroundings and consumed by their own daily conflicts. Visually, Shaw employs a leisurely storytelling pace that allows room for exploring the interconnecting relationships among the characters and plays to his strength as a cartoonist - small gestural details and nuanced expressions that bring the characters to vivid and intimate life.
The novel has been extremely well received, even by publications that normally do not review graphic novels. The New York Times found it "Engrossing." The Christian Science Monitor wrote: "Like the very best illustrated fiction, Shaw's work moves between pathos and humor, between the fantastic and the familiar." New York Magazine declared that "Young Dash Shaw has written the graphic novel of the year." Entertainment gave the book an "A".
Pantheon recently acquired Dash's next book, Body World, which he is currently publishing on line. Once the on-line version is completed, Pantheon will publish the work in its entirety. Publisher's Weekly has noted that Hollywood film studies are showing a marked interest in both graphic novels.
All events are FREE and open to the public. Sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies and the Duke University Center for International Studies
For more information on these and other exhibits at the Franklin Center, contact Rob Sikorski, r.sikorski@duke.edu.